Dean Barnes Presents Rookie Card Collection of Black NHL Players

As a hockey fan, there’s a moment of excitement opening a new pack of hockey cards. Will you find the missing card? Will your pack include a special edition item? Will your favorite player be waiting? Will you see yourself reflected in the athletes depicted?

For most of hockey history, the answer to that final question for women and racialized populations has been “no.”

Hockey card collector and educator Dean Barnes has sought to change that for Black hockey fans, compiling a collection of rookie cards for every Black player to compete in the NHL. Currently, that collection, which will continue to grow as more Black hockey players ascend to the NHL, includes 101 cards. He selected 10 to travel North America as part of the NHL’s United By Hockey Mobile History Museum.

“I’d always been interested in Black NHL players, particularly Tony McKegney and Grant Fuhr when I was growing up,” said Barnes, a Burlington, Ont. resident, who serves as a superintendent of education with the Halton District School Board. In 2020, while completing another hockey card collection, his 1979-80 O’Pee Chee set, Barnes saw more Black people sharing their stories openly, particularly following the murder of George Floyd. At that time, the connection between hockey cards and preserving Black history clicked for Barnes.

“Hockey cards were like a gateway for the stories of Black players, many of whom had been forgotten,” said Barnes, who played hockey at the University of Waterloo in 1989-90. “This was a way for me personally to celebrate them.”

Barnes intends to not only share his collection with the world but also hopes to share knowledge and stories about Black hockey history through a new podcast, where Barnes will be “narrating the stories behind the players on the cards,” called My Hockey Hero.

Barnes’ first card in the collection was Grant Fuhr, and soon, he was hooked. “It became about pride for me, and history, not in the asset value of the cards,” he said.

Eventually, Barnes hit roadblocks in his collection. Some players, such as Val James, who became the first American-born Black player to compete in the NHL in 1981-82, did not have rookie cards. As a result, Barnes found custom card makers and had rookie cards made. Other times, such as finding a Bernie Saunders card, the player (in this case, Saunders) reached out to Barnes after hearing of his project to provide a card.

In all, it took Barnes roughly a year to compile and create his collection. Now, he hopes these cards and the conversations they generate will help build more awareness and inclusion for diversity in hockey.

“It became a personal library that took me about a year to build, but the educator in me got me thinking about what a tool this collection of 101 cards could be to raise awareness and encourage future conversations about the importance of diversity, inclusion and acceptance in the game of hockey at all levels,” said Barnes.

“This wasn’t the purpose I set out with, but it is what it has become.”

Barnes’ collection is the latest in a trend of collectors hoping to unearth hidden gems, preserve stories, and grow equity and inclusion in the sport through hockey cards. Recently, Upper Deck released an eight-card set of rookie cards for Indigenous hockey players who had not previously had an NHL hockey card.

Now that Barnes has completed his NHL collection, he intends to continue building on his display of Black history in hockey by including cards and athletes from the CHL, NCAA and minor professional leagues.

The cards and the United By Hockey Mobile History Museum began their journey recently at the NHL all-star events in Florida. They will travel to each NHL market from February through June, with the exhibit aiming to raise awareness of hockey diversity, including the stories of the 10 hockey players featured in Barnes’ card collection.

Correction: Dean Barnes selected 10 cards from his collection to be in the United By Hockey Mobile History Museum. Not all 101 cards are on tour.