Routine can be comforting for most people. It is nice to wake up and know what to expect for the day. You have your cup of coffee, hit a quick breakfast, and it's off to work. 

Once settled in, you fire up the computer and begin the day's to-do list. The day is cruising along, everything is going fine. You are finishing your work faster than normal and may even leave work a few minutes early.

You hear an email notification, and it is a calendar invite from your manager scheduled for the exact time you planned on leaving for the day. We have all been there.

Upper Deck SPx Hockey has been routine for the last few years. Each box featured one autograph, memorabilia hits, and a few base cards. Collectors hope to find a Lustrous Rookie Patch Auto, Obsidian hit, or a Pride of a Nation auto.

Upper Deck SPx changed up the routine of SPx Hockey for 2024-25.

Overview

Upper Deck 2024-25 SPx was released on Apr. 9, 2025, and retails for $115 USD per box. The box layout is eight packs per box and three cards per pack. The former SPx Hockey box layout was six cards per box with one autograph, on average.

Collectors can expect four base rookies, three silver parallels, 1 gold parallel, 2 serially numbered Finite hits, and four additional hits.

Notably, autographs do not average one-per-box and there are no more memorabilia hits. Obsidian and Black parallels are a thing of the past. 

The Good

Upper Deck 2024-25 SPx Hockey is what Synergy Hockey should be. A clean set with nice looking cards and decent hit potential. The checklist is quite possibly the best SPx checklist in years.

All of the rookies and veterans have a standard assortment of hits. The potential of great legends hits are what drives Upper Deck 2024-25 SPx Hockey.

Eric Lindros, Cam Neely, Mario Lemieux, and Martin Brodeur highlight the 1996-97 SPx Buybacks Autographs checklist.

Patrick Roy, Wayne Gretzky, and Bobby Orr highlight the All-Time Holoview Autographs checklist.

Johnny Bucyk, Tiger Williams, Felix Potvin, and Mike Ricci are players rarely seen in modern Upper Deck Hockey products and all have hits in the latest installment of Upper Deck SPx Hockey.

What Could be Better

Would Upper Deck have been better off scrapping the SPx Hockey brand and starting fresh? Upper Deck 2024-25 SPx Hockey does not feel like an SPx Hockey product. It is much closer to Synergy Hockey.

Synergy Hockey is not Upper Deck's most popular hockey brand by any means, so calling it "Synergy Hockey 2.0" would not have been the best idea. 

Perhaps the better plan would have been to reserve the SPx brand to appear in other products. Upper Deck may have confused collectors with 2024-25 SPx Hockey.

Gawlik's Score

The checklist is the savior of my score for Upper Deck 2024-25 SPx Hockey. The 5.2 score is based on the following; price per box, reformat, and removal of long time staples of SPx Hockey.

The price per box is a bit steep for a product that does not average one autograph per box. The box layout may confuse long-time SPx Hockey collectors. Collectors are sure to miss the Lustrous Rookie Patch Autographs and other hits commonly expected in SPx Hockey.

If there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the removal of the "Black" parallels from SPx Hockey could pave the way for an Upper Deck Black Hockey comeback.

Happy hunting and collecting!