2013-14 Panini Prime Box Break

So now that we got all of those smaller boxes out of the way, now is time for some BIG TIME box breaking! There are two boxes left to go in this purchase from Dave & Adam's Card World, and I certainly saved the best for last. Now, I am saving my other box for the end, mainly because it was the more expensive of the two, but I think this one might win out on simply having better hits.

Now each box of Prime is guaranteed to contain seven cards, which include the following: 2 base cards, 1 rookie quad memorabilia autograph, one autographed card, one memorabilia card, and two other autograph or memorabilia cards. As it turns out, my nine-card box also contained an additional base parallel and one additional hit.

Here's what I got.

Base: Dustin Byfuglien 295/299 & Sergei Bobrovsky 187/299. I've said it before in other box breaks of mine, but I really love these card. The overall darkness is really cool, as it better spotlights the full-color image of the player, and if you can get these autographed, either in silver or gold, they will look fantastic.

Patrick Kane Holo Silver Parallel 3/10. I was very happy with this one. Not only did I get a super-rare parallel, but it is of one of the game's premier players. Despite Kane's off-season issues, he hasn't lost a step at all, and is still one of the very best.

Aleksander Barkov/Mikael Granlund/Olli Maatta Prime Trios 85/100. This card features features three of 2013-14's top rookies, each of whom comes from...you guessed it, Finland. For one, this card contains Maatta, a Penguin, which is awesome in itself, but not only that, each of the swatches comes from each of their team's colored home jerseys, which makes this card look so much better than it would with white swatches.

Cory Conacher Showase Patches 16/20. Conacher's NHL career was a promising one when he entered the league in 2013. The lit things up for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and was a key element in the trade that dealt Ben Bishop from the Ottawa Senators to the Lightning. Unfortunately, Conacher couldn't find that magic again in Ottawa, and after two more seasons in the NHL, with the Senators, Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, Conacher left the NHL, and signed with a Swiss club, SC Bern, of the NLA.

Valeri Nichushkin Prime Rookies Quad /199. Here's where things start to get really good. This is one of the set's rookie cards, but in Prime, each of the rookies contain four pieces of memorabilia and an on-card autograph. This one is the base version, in which all four memorabilia pieces are plain jersey swatches. Still as a bit of a Stars fan, this was a great one to get. Nichushkin was their top rookie for 2013-14, and made a big splash in his rookie season. In 79 games, he scored 14 goals and 20 season, which is a pretty good start to one's career.

Olli Maatta Prime Rookies Quad 89/199. Even better than Nichushkin is Maatta, who is Penguins brightest young defensive prospect. In a 2013-14 season that saw Pittsburgh's defensive corps riddled with injuries, Maatta proved to be a constant, playing in all but 4 games that season, scoring 9 goals and 20 assists. Unfortunately for him, 2014-15 was a different story, as he was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and had to undergo surgery to remove the tumor. Soon after making a full recovery from that, he re-injured the shoulder he had surgery on in the off-season, and would miss the remainder of the season to have another surgery to repair the shoulder. Despite all that, Maatta was ready to go at the beginning of this season, and looks forward to being a defensive mainstay for years to come.

Bryan Trottier Prime colors 3/26. OK, this one is just plain awesome. This is my fifth box of Prime to open over the past couple of years (3 from 2012-13 & 2 from 2013-14), but this is the first time I have ever pulled a Prime Colors card. This set basically takes the patch card and completely blows it up to the extreme. You don't just get a window of a patch, the whole card is a patch. Now some are better than others, but this Bryan Trottier is about as good as it gets. Of course, it comes from a sweater he wore during his time with the New York Islanders, where he won for Stanley Cups (he also won 2 with the Pittsburgh Penguins). It comes from the bottom of the jersey crest, where you can see the corner of the white stick blade of the "Y" in "NY" and the "and" in the word "Islanders." The really cool thing with these, is that you can really see the intricacies of how these are put together, and when you compare it to more modern patches, it gives you a good look at how these things have changed over time. And as an added bonus, there's even a few puck marks, just to show you how tough Trottier was.

Now as good as that card is, for those of you keeping count, there is still one more card that is even better than that one. What could be better than that, you ask?

Well...

Gordie Howe/Steve Yzerman Prime Signatures Dual Gold /25. Easily the best card I've pulled all year, this card featuers on-card autographs of the two greatest Red Wings of all time, which is pretty impressive, considering the names that have work the red and white. Howe, of course, is a legend, and set most of the NHL records that Wayne Gretzky would eventually break. "Mr. Hockey" is royalty in this sport, and depending on who you ask, is in the list of top three hockey players of all time. Yzerman played a lot more recently, of course, but as far as hockey fans in the Motor City are concerned, holds a place right next to Howe. He won three Stanley Cups in Detroit, as well, as many other individual awards, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009.

That's it for this box, and it was epic. There were two blockbusters, two really good rookies, and a few other great ones as well. I did get two redemptions, but an Ebay search revealed that live versions of these cards are out there, so I shouldn't have to wait long at all to get them in. Looking at the redemptions, I noticed that they will be expiring at the end of January, so if I wnt to get any more Prime boxes, I will need to hurry.