Each month Upper Deck spotlights one of its valued collectors to showcase their collection or pursuits. The great thing about sports collectors is that they are all very different in what they collect, how they collect, and what they do once they have the cards they were looking for. Kenney Der is a passionate fan of Drew Doughty from the Los Angeles Kings. What makes this interesting is that when he pulled his first Doughty card, Kenney didn’t even know who he was. I always find it interesting as to what makes someone decide to collect a certain player. Check out Kenney’s story and find out what the spark was to compile such an amazing collection of Doughty cards and collectibles.

“My name is Kenney Der and I live in Grande Prairie, Alberta, up here in Canada. Grand Prairie is about four hours north west of Edmonton to give you a better idea of where I’m at. I have been collecting cards on and off for about 10 years. I first gained interest in the sport of hockey when I was about seven years old, staying up late watching the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames hockey games with my father. I didn’t start collecting hockey cards until I was about 11 years old when my dad would take me to the local convenience stores or gas stations to pick up a couple packs of cards (if I behaved properly, of course).

Kenney Der sits with some of his favorite Drew Doughty collectibles.

“As I got older I stopped collecting sports cards entirely, but kept everything I had amassed throughout the years. I didn’t become passionate about collecting again until I stumbled onto a YouTube hockey card box break video. It made me remember how much fun opening boxes was so I purchased Upper Deck’s Black Diamond as I remembered that product well and also decided to try some higher-end product with SP Game-Used and Ultimate. From each of those three boxes I pulled a Drew Doughty insert card which I thought was pretty cool. I got the Black Diamond Quad Rookie, SP Game-Used Rookie numbered 06/99 and an Ultimate redemption for his rookie card numbered to 399.

“The funny thing is that I had no idea who he was until I did some research and discovered Drew was a top NHL draft pick. I watched some of his Guelph Storm highlights on YouTube and I was really impressed by this defenseman who plays such good offense. I thought to myself it can’t be bad to start collecting a top-drafted defenseman, so my hunt for Doughty began. I decided to start by getting one of every Doughty Upper Deck rookie card and after I completed that task, I started my hunt for every Upper Deck Doughty card numbered to two or higher.

This is just a small sampling of Der's impressive Doughty trading card collection.

“I have obtained 94.19% of every Upper Deck Drew Doughty card up to the most current product [‘10-11 SP Authentic]. I currently own 373 of a possible 396 non 1-of-1 Upper Deck cards of Doughty. The total number of cards includes cards not listed on the Upper Deck checklist such as the LA Kings team, OPC Blank Backs, OPC Box bottoms, BAP Player’s Club parallel and the Upper Deck French Series 1 set. My current collection consists of 36 Upper Deck 1-of-1 cards of Doughty (24 of them being printing plate cards). Many are sought after rookie card inserts like Drew Doughty’s Ultimate Rookie Shield and Property Of. Aside from my Upper Deck cards I own over 560 different Drew Doughty cards from combined products such as Upper Deck, Panini, ITG and Guelph Storm Issued cards. Altogether I have collected a grand combined total of 54 1-of-1 cards from the various manufacturers.

These are Kenney's top five Doughty cards. Some AMAZING cards here!

“One of the things I love about collecting a rookie is to watch him transform into a legitimate star. It has been so rewarding and fun to see Drew Doughty achieve a heightened level of stardom, especially watching his superb play with Team Canada in the Olympics. I am also grateful of having the opportunity to watch Drew live three times this year [season opener in Vancouver and two Edmonton Oilers games] and I also look forward to possibly meeting Drew in Los Angeles next year for the Tip-A-King event. I’d love to get my two game-worn jerseys signed by him.

Kenney also has a great collection of signed and game-worn jerseys of Drew Doughty.

“I’ve started a website to help show off my collection to other fans, but also to help track down cards I’m missing. Right now I’m really looking for some of his ‘08-09 UD Black Letterman autograph patch cards, in particular the U, G, T and Y cards. If you wouldn’t mind helping a fellow collector out, take a look at my collection and “Want List” for Doughty cards. Email me at [email protected] if you can help out with any of these. I’d appreciate it. In addition, thank you, Upper Deck. for giving me the opportunity to share my Drew Doughty collection with you and your fans.”

The pleasure is all ours, Kenney. It’s so amazing to see what has come from just opening three boxes. Your collection is amazing and you should be very proud of it!