The Complicated History of Be A Player, In The Game, Leaf and President’s Choice Hockey Cards

One of the more confusing corners of hockey card collecting is the history of the brands Be A Player, In The Game, Leaf, and President’s Choice. Their cards can look unusual beside traditional Upper Deck, Topps or O-Pee-Chee releases. Team logos disappear, uniforms are altered, photographs are cropped creatively, and cards may feature game-used memorabilia despite carrying no official NHL license.

Understanding why requires going back to the 1990s.

Be A Player, commonly known as BAP, appeared during the hobby boom of the 1990s and became particularly well known for autograph-heavy products. Licensing was not always straightforward. Depending on the year and the manufacturer, BAP products could have different licensing arrangements. Some releases were associated with the NHL Players' Association without having full NHL licensing.

That distinction was important.

The NHLPA could provide access to the players, but an NHL license was required for the official league and team trademarks. Without it, manufacturers had to avoid or obscure team logos. The result was cards showing recognizable NHL players in digitally altered, airbrushed, or photographed uniforms that minimized protected trademarks.

In 1998, Dr. Brian Price founded In The Game, which became one of the most interesting alternatives to the major licensed manufacturers. Be A Player became part of the ITG story, but In The Game eventually expanded far beyond the original concept.

Products such as Between the Pipes, Heroes and Prospects, Ultimate Memorabilia and numerous historical releases developed a dedicated following. Between the Pipes was especially significant for goalie collectors because ITG was willing to produce cards, especially goaltender autographs, that other manufacturers often ignored. (You can find some in my GAME USED section)

The licensing situation became even more complicated after the NHL granted Upper Deck an exclusive hockey-card license starting with the 2005-06 season. ITG could continue producing hockey cards, but it couldn't use NHL team logos and trademarks.

Instead of disappearing, ITG adapted.

Its designers became remarkably creative at hiding logos through photography, cropping and image manipulation. More importantly, the company concentrated heavily on autographs and game-used memorabilia. ITG produced cards containing pieces of jerseys, pads, gloves, and other equipment from players spanning generations of hockey history.

In 2014, Leaf Trading Cards acquired the In The Game brand, marking another chapter in its story. Leaf continued producing unlicensed hockey products using many of the same principles: strong autograph content, memorabilia and subjects who might never appear in mainstream NHL-licensed sets.

Then there is President's Choice Trading Cards, which brings the story almost full circle.

President's Choice is a project by ITG founder Dr. Brian Price. Rather than competing directly with massive mainstream releases, President's Choice has concentrated on extremely limited cards, unusual memorabilia combinations and pieces designed specifically for serious hockey collectors. Many cards exist in extraordinarily small quantities, sometimes as true one-of-ones.

For the Goalie Archive, this complicated history matters especially in my Vezina Game Used archive.

Collectors sometimes automatically place unlicensed cards below NHL-licensed releases. Visually, I understand why. A Boston Bruins card without the Bruins logo can look strange. A photograph with part of a jersey digitally erased will never have quite the same appearance as an officially licensed card.

But sometimes these cards contain something far more important than a logo.

If I want a memorabilia card of a goaltender such as Tiny Thompson, who began his NHL career in 1928, my Game Used options are understandably limited. The modern memorabilia-card industry didn't exist during his playing career. Companies such as ITG and President's Choice sought out historical material and transformed surviving pieces into collectible cards.

Even with more recent goaltenders such as Jim Carey, the specific relics and unusual memorabilia cards I'm looking for in the Goalie Archive can sometimes force me outside the mainstream licensed products.

That's why I don't consider these cards simply substitutes for licensed cards.

They represent a completely different branch of hockey card history.

Be A Player helped establish the concept. In The Game pushed deeply into autographs, prospects, goaltenders, and historic memorabilia. Leaf carried much of that philosophy forward after acquiring ITG, while President's Choice allowed Brian Price to continue creating some remarkably specialized hockey memorabilia cards.

Their licensing history is messy. Their designs can often be awkward, and their place in the hobby and the secondary market can be equally strange.

But for a collection like mine attempting to document the history of NHL goaltenders, sometimes the card without the NHL logo is the only card that contains the piece of history I'm looking for.