More than a hundred years after women started playing the game, Manon Rhéaume's 1992 hockey cards were the first of a women’s player ever produced. To put that into context, the first men to appear on hockey cards were in a set released by Imperial Tobacco in 1910. Hockey cards of male athletes were printed for 82 years before Rhéaume became the first woman to be given the honour of appearing on one.
In 1992, Rhéaume made worldwide headlines when Phil Esposito, the general manager of the NHL expansion franchise Tampa Bay Lightning, invited Rhéaume to the team’s training camp. Rhéaume would suit up for the Lightning for one preseason game, becoming the first woman to play in the National Hockey League.
With the public attention that came with attending an NHL camp with the Lightning and subsequently playing in lower-tier professional men’s leagues, Rhéaume became a wildly marketable athlete and signed deals with McDonald's, Toyota, Starter, and Reebok.
Steve Bartlett, Rhéaume’s U.S.-based agent, said in 1992: “I don’t represent a Gretzky or Lemieux, but in marketing terms, I think Manon is close to those type of guys.”
Card companies were also keen to produce cards of her. Enter Classic Games, a new player on the scene in the hockey card market, operated by Paul Goldin and his son - a name you might recognize, thanks to the Netflix series ‘King of Collectables’ - Ken Goldin. In 1992, Classic Games signed Rhéaume to an exclusive contract to print and release her cards through their Classic Hockey set.
“Classic Games were very aggressive… in a good way,” recalls Steve Bartlett today. “We talked briefly with Upper Deck but Classic was very anxious that she be part of their roster of athletes.”
“None of these were huge money deals back then, so it’s not like one group was offering substantially more than the other. It was really who we felt would do the best job of producing, promoting, and respecting what Manon wanted. The fact that they wanted to bring her into some of their events, along with some of the more established and bigger-name athletes, to have her be a part of the billing, always struck home.”
In 1992, Classic printed three Manon Rhéaume cards using two pictures of her in full gear, wearing a solid black jersey without branding, an unpainted white mask flipped up so her face is visible, and white, black and red pads, blocker and glove. In one picture, she's standing upright, in a pose reminiscent of Ken Dryden. In the other, she’s crouched with her glove propped atop her left pad and blocker at knee height in front of her right pad.
“It was surreal to hold my own card for the first time,” says Rhéaume. “I never imagined I’d be on a trading card, especially as a woman in a male-dominated sport. It was a proud moment and something I’ll never forget.”
The Card That Inspired A Generation
While the cards themselves are far from flashy, what they signified for girls in hockey at the time was enormous.
“Growing up as a hockey fan—especially a big Quebec Nordiques fan—I went to games and collected cards. I have two brothers who also played hockey, and we all collected hockey cards together,” says Rhéaume. “Growing up, I never saw women on cards, or playing professional hockey, so I didn’t even dream of those possibilities.”
“I actually had the the 1980 U.S Miracle on Ice team card in my wallet,” says Olympic gold medalist and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Angela Ruggiero at the 2025 Toronto Sports Card Expo, “which is funny because I wanted to be one of them but I couldn’t be a male American hockey player. There were no women’s cards, but I had that card as a reminder that I wanted to play in the Olympics.”
Sami Jo Small, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and co-founder of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, was a 16-year-old goaltender in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1992 and says that she owned a copy of Manon’s Classic rookie card and also had Rhéaume’s poster on her wall.
“She represented everything I had dreamt about,” says Small. “There were no girls leagues in Winnipeg so I played boys hockey. Like most of my teammates, I wanted to play in the NHL. I wanted to be the first woman to play in the NHL. She represented the dream inside me.”
“It’s a huge honour to have been the first woman hockey player featured on a trading card,” says Rhéaume. “At the time, I wasn’t fully aware of the significance of those 1992 Classic cards but, looking back, it means a lot to me. It represented progress for women in the sport and showed young girls that anything is possible.”
Rhéaume Popular With Fans And Collectors
When Rhéaume’s cards hit the market in late 1992, they were in higher demand than cards of other Lightning players that year, the franchise’s inaugural season.
“All the Lightning cards are hot items right now,” Tampa Bay card shop owner Andy Stoltz told The Tampa Bay Tribune in January 1993. “But Manon’s cards are, by far, the best sellers.”
“Manon was extremely popular with the fans,” says Bartlett. “She was friendly and outgoing and always happy to pose for a picture or hang around and sign autographs. I think she felt a responsibility to be an ambassador for women and to bring credibility to women's hockey. I always felt she really embraced that role and thought she did a really impressive job of it.”
“Back then, I did a lot of card shows, and most of the fans were men or young boys because women’s hockey wasn’t really on the radar yet,” says Rhéaume. “It actually took a few years before I started seeing young girls coming up with my card. Not many girls were playing hockey at the time.”
After Rhéaume retired and began coaching girls, girls would come up to her at tournaments with her hockey cards.
"That’s when it really hit me—how special it was to inspire young girls through something as simple as a hockey card. Seeing their excitement made me realize the impact it had.”
“I give kudos to Manon for being the first and having the ability to put herself in that position,” says Bartlett. “She definitely was a pioneer at the time. There’s been an explosion in women's sports and Manon played a role in that.”
“Companies realize that they'd better pay attention to women because it's a market that is growing rapidly, and they'd be missing out on a real opportunity. I think it is at their peril if they're only concentrating on male athletes.”
Since those first cards in 1992, over 1400 cards of Rhéaume have been produced under the banners of Upper Deck, Leaf, O-Pee-Chee, Panini, Goodwin Champions, Pro Set and In The Game. The women’s player with the next closest number of cards? Hillary Knight with 470+.
“I had no idea there were over 1400 cards of me out there—that’s crazy! But if having that many cards helped bring more visibility to women’s hockey or encouraged card companies to include more female athletes, that’s something I am really happy to see.”
“I wouldn’t call myself a serious card collector, but over the years, I’ve kept some of my own cards. I don’t have all of them—there are way too many—but I do have a small collection. When my kids were younger, they thought it was really cool. It was fun for them to see their mom on a hockey card, especially since that’s something most kids associate with professional male athletes. I think it helped them understand what I had accomplished.”
While there are a lot of cards to choose from, there’s no doubt in her mind which is her favourite:
“The most special card to me is the 1994 Classic card I was on with my brother Pascal. We were very close growing up—we’re just a year apart—and we often played on the same teams. We spent so much time on the ice together so to have a card featuring both of us meant a lot. I’ve even had fans send those dual-signed cards in the mail: I’d sign my part and send it to Pascal and he’d add his signature. It was always special to share that with him.”
