This Saturday, Feb. 11, Upper Deck will be bringing the company’s popular National Hockey Card Day program to the United States for the first time ever! Upper Deck will be giving away hundreds of thousands of exclusive “National Hockey Card Day” NHL® trading card packs for FREE throughout United States. All puck fans need to do is head out on Saturday and visit a participating retailer to receive a FREE National Hockey Card Day pack.

“We are thrilled about bringing National Hockey Card Day to fans in the United States and sharing this wonderful hobby with them,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s sports marketing & social media manager. “Hockey fans in the U.S. have seen how much fun their Canadian counterparts had with this promotion the past few years and they have been clamoring for us to bring it to the United States. We look forward to record numbers of hockey fans visiting participating hobby shops this weekend to score their free National Hockey Card Day packs.”

“All collectors are fans, but not all fans are collectors,” said Dave McCarthy, NHL vice president of consumer products. “This promotion by Upper Deck, with all the free cards offered, will go a long way to introduce the excitement of hockey trading cards to our passionate fan base.”

The main draw for collectors to set out to visit participating retailers is the National Hockey Card Day set itself. The 16-card set with the special “National Hockey Card Day” logo on the front consists of three subsets that pay tribute to American-born players and international players on top U.S. franchises. On the “America’s Franchises” set fans can find cards of Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado Avalanche), Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals), Henrik Lundqvist (New York Rangers), Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators), Jaromir Jagr (Philadelphia Flyers) and Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins). In the “Stars in Stripes” set look for American-born players like Ryan Kesler, Patrick Kane, Ryan Miller, Zach Parise and rookie Andy Miele. And in the “American Icons” set collectors can capture cards of legends like Willie O’Ree, Mike Modano, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch. Each pack will yield five randomly assorted cards featuring the aforementioned players, while a special limited 16th card featuring Tim Thomas celebrating his Stanley Cup® victory last season that collectors can score as a gift with purchase from shop owners while supplies last. Some lucky collectors may also find some other special surprises in National Hockey Card Day packs.

To help promote the special day, Upper Deck cast NHL prospects Adam Henrique, Ryan Strome and Brandon Gormley in a viral video where trading cards come to life to discuss National Hockey Card Day, check it out:

For more information on National Hockey Card Day in the United States and to view a list of participating retailers, click here. Also, Upper Deck has set up a Facebook page for the event and will be running a variety of promotions and giveaways on the page so make sure to “like” it today.