Color of Hockey: Indigenous players honored with Upper Deck cards

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Upper Deck releasing a collection of rookie cards honoring eight Indigenous players who never had licensed NHL trading cards.

Dan Hodgson always politely declined whenever someone asked him for an autographed rookie card of himself.
"I had to tell them, 'No, there was never one made," said Hodgson, a retired center who played 114 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks from 1985-89. "Back in those days, they didn't do everybody on the hockey team. So unless you were a big star already or a hotshot rookie ..."
Nearly 38 years after his NHL debut, Hodgson finally has his card thanks to a new Upper Deck limited edition collection that highlights eight Indigenous players who never had a licensed NHL trading card during their careers.
The Upper Deck First Peoples Rookie Cards honor Hodgson, Ted Nolan, Jason Simon, Dan Frawley, Johnny Harms, Victor Mercredi, Rocky Trottier and Bill LeCaine.

"It's a real special feeling to have a rookie card now, Danny Hodgson finally has a rookie card in the NHL," Hodgson said. "It's almost like being bona fide or vested or saying, 'Yeah, you did play'-type thing.
"The extra piece is it's an Indigenous rookie card with all the other Indigenous players. I'm quite honored by that; I've always been proud of my heritage."
Upper Deck worked closely with the former players and their families on the cards, which were designed by Jacob Alexis from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation.
The player biographies on the back of the cards were written by Naim Cardinal, a Kelowna, British Columbia, resident and member of Tallcree First Nation and an avid collector of hockey cards of Indigenous players.
"It's very meaningful for me to see an entire set of cards that are that are dedicated to players of Indigenous ancestry," Cardinal said. "I think the representation is always important in sports or anything else in life.
"It's important for youth to see people who are like them, who maybe have gone through similar life experiences that they have and have been able to and to thrive in what their passions are. That can be hockey, it can be any sport, it can be any career or activity that they're doing."

Upper Deck president Jason Masherah said it was pivotal for the company to involve the Indigenous community in producing the cards in order to do it right.
"We're thrilled to give these iconic players the recognition they deserve," Masherah said, "and get the cards in the hands of excited community members."
Upper Deck began rolling the cards out last week. Packs were distributed at games where Indigenous NHL alumni teams played in Indigenous communities in St. Paul, Minnesota, Alberta and Tallcree First Nation. Fans attending the Mushkegowuk Cup, an annual minor hockey tournament that brings First Nations teams together from Feb. 17-19 in Timmins, Ontario, also will receive packs.
So will teams and fans attending the Little Native Hockey League Tournament in Nipissing First Nation, Ontario, from March 13-18. In addition, packs will be distributed at 3 Nolan Hockey Camp, run by Nolan and his sons, former NHL players Jordan and Brandon Nolan; Hockey Indigenous Development Camp; and First Row Collectibles, an Indigenous-owned hobby shop in Winnipeg.
Nolan said he's looking forward to handing out the cards. Selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the fifth round (No. 78) of the 1978 NHL Draft, Nolan had 22 points (six goals, 16 assists) in 78 games as a forward with the Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins from 1981-86.
He went on to coach the Buffalo Sabres (1995-97 and 2013-15) and New York Islanders (2006-08) and won the Jack Adams Award, voted NHL coach off the year, in 1997.

"I'm even more proud than the rookie card itself of being part of a group of individuals who either missed a cutoff or were sent down after the fact or played 'X' amount of games," Nolan said. "There were some pretty stringent rules on who got on [cards] back then. So to be recognized with all the guys that that I'm with, Indigenous players, is definitely an honor."
Simon had no points in five games with the Islanders and Phoenix Coyotes from 1993-97; Frawley had 77 points (37 goals, 40 assists) in 273 games with the Chicago Black Hawks and Penguins from 1983-89; Harms had 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 44 games with Chicago from 1943-45; Mercredi had no points in two games with the Atlanta Flames in 1974-75; Trottier, the younger brother of Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier, had 10 points (six goals, four assists) in 38 games with the New Jersey Devils from 1983-85; and LeCaine no points in four games with Pittsburgh in 1968-69.
Hodgson began handing out his Upper Deck rookie card at a signing event on Saturday in Fort McMurray, Alberta, where he lives.
"I just got so used to saying, 'I don't have one,' and came to grips with it really early on," he said. "But now to finally have one, it's like, 'Wow, this is really something now.'"
Photos: Upper Deck