09-10 Upper Deck Series 1 Retail Box Break

Last summer I picked up a couple boxes of retail hockey. Two 09-10 and one 14-15. The 14-15 was epic-ally awful. So bad I didn't want to spend any time scanning the cards to share them let alone rehash the experience. The one 09-10 was equally bad. Thankfully there was gone good box in the lot and I will share some of those with you wonderful folks today. If it had been the only box, then I would have called it a success. Sadly it needs to carry the weight of its crappy brethren so that in itself also diminishes the success here.

Without further ado, the top 4 Guns out of 6 I got and one game used card.

09-10 Upper Deck Dmitry Kulikov Young Gun

First up is Dmitry Kulikov. Kulikov is a pretty steady defenseman who currently is apart of a pretty solid blue line group in Winnipeg. Having grown up in Lipetsk, I am sure living in Winnipeg isn't as painful as some seem to find it given they get cold weather on occasion in that part of Russia.  

09-10 Upper Deck Artem Anisimov Young Gun

Artem hit a milestone this week scoring his 300th career point. It took him 600 games which is pretty decent, at that pace he'd be good for 41 points in an 82 game season. Playing 82 games in a season has been a challenge for Artem given he hasn't reached that total in the past 7 seasons. Still, he's a very dynamic player and can often surprise defenders with a great move or a superb pass.

09-10 Upper Deck James van Riemsdyk

Oh boy, back in 2009 this was a pretty coveted card. Second overall pick, loads of talent and potential and the sky was the limit. James in now in his 9th season, he's managed some great numbers including a career high in goals of 30 and he's cracked 60 points twice. This year he's on pace for 32 goals and 49 points. However, if we were to look at the 2007 draft class as a whole, he'd likely still be a first rounder but guys selected behind him (Voracek, Couture, Shattenkirk, Pacioretty, Subban, Simmonds, and Benn) may all get some consideration before JVR. With that being said, given the 50 Young Gun cards I could have hit, this is one of the better ones. 

09-10 Upper Deck Jamie Benn Young Gun 

The biggest hit of the box without a doubt is this one. Jamie was a 5th round steal for the Dallas Stars and as of today, ranks second in points from those selected in 2007 with 569 just behind Patrick Kane (805). Jamie has scored 20 goals or more in every season he's played except the lockout year and this season is on pace for 30 goals and 75 points. He's definitely an elite talent and this was one YG I was missing from my collection so in all a very nice hit.


The Game Used Card!

All retail boxes back then came with a single game used card and I think I did pretty well with Anze Kopitar!

So there you have it, been a while since I shared a box break but given how bad my luck has been in this department, you can probably understand how I didn't want to use up too much of my limited blogging time on some pretty spectacularly awful boxes. This was definitely a success but far from my best too.

How about yourselves? Any box luck lately?