For the third year running, Upper Deck will host National Hockey Card Day in Canada. The big day is Saturday, Feb. 12. That’s the day when Upper Deck will give away hundreds of thousands of exclusive “National Hockey Card Day” NHL trading card packs for FREE throughout Canada. Once again, the distribution points will be hundreds of hobby shops as well as mass retailers throughout Oh Canada.

“Canadian hockey fans are rabid about their sport and their teams, so Upper Deck wanted to do something special as a way to salute their  incredible devotion,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s sports marketing manager. “The program has been a huge success every year since we started it, so we expect countless hockey fans and trading card collectors to be visiting their local hobby shops and retailers next weekend.”

If you’re not excited yet, just take a gander at this video:

Just like in years past, the buzz surrounding the promotion lies in the National Hockey Card Day set itself. The 16-card set consists of some of the top Canadian-born rookies, current stars and legends with a special “National Hockey Card Day” logo-stamp adorning each card front. The lineup includes five rookies (Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Jeff Skinner, Jordan Eberle and P.K. Subban); five established stars (Jason Spezza, Dion Phaneuf, Jerome Iginla, Roberto Luongo and Sidney Crosby); and five legends of the game (Patrick Roy, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky). Each pack will yield five randomly assorted cards featuring the aforementioned players, while a special 16th card featuring Chicago Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews celebrating his first Stanley Cup last year will be utilized as a gift with purchase by shop owners.

For more information about National Hockey Card Day, please visit www.upperdeck.com/nhcd.

Taylor Hall leads the lineup of rookies featured in Upper Deck's latest NHCD set.