Shield Your Eyes: The 78th 1/1 Has Arrived!

Apr 19, 2025

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The mail this week brought another 1/1 for the Jhonas Enroth card collection.

This card is from the 2017 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey product. This product was released on October 6th, 2017. I haven’t seen this card at all since the release, and I was beginning to think I may not ever see it, until someone reached out to me through an eBay listing willing to make a deal with me for this card. They had just broken a box of Leaf ITG Superlative and found this card inside. Funny enough, this card does feature a spelling mistake, as Jhonas’ first name is spelled ‘Jhones’ on the card. Can’t say I’ve seen that before, but these things can happen!

This card marks a new ‘era’ in my collection, as this is the first pack-inserted Leaf card in my collection. Previously, the non-licensed cards in my collection came solely from In The Game (ITG) Trading Cards. While this card is similar (more on that in a moment), I always enjoyed adding new card brands into my collection.

2017 Leaf In The Game Superlative Hockey Boxed ProductThe game-used NHL Shield memorabilia used for this card comes from a 40th Anniversary Buffalo Sabres alternate jersey. The Sabres wore these alternate jersey’s from 2010-2012. Enroth wore these jersey’s during his time with the Sabres during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 season.

I know that both In The Game (ITG) and Panini acquired these special anniversary jersey’s to make trading cards out of in 2011 / 2012. The jersey this Superlative shield comes from is the jersey worn in the 2011-12 season that was originally purchased by In The Game sometime in 2012. I was able to match the nameplate jersey material I have on another ITG card to the 11-12 jersey’s simultaneously with the Panini nameplate memorabilia found on some of their cards with the type of nameplate memorabilia used on the earlier style worn in 10-11.

Update: Below you’ll find two jerseys I found on display at the April 2025 Spring Expo in Toronto. The Morrisonn jersey is from the 2010-11 season, and you’ll notice the slightly different yellow jersey material used on the nameplate name bar. The Leopold jersey from 2011-12 has a different material used, as it closely resembles the standard jersey material used on the rest of the jersey. I am not sure why this switch was made, but this Change made it identifiable which jersey ITG had bought (2011-12) by viewing cards showcasing the nameplate material versus the jersey Panini had from 2010-11.

2012-13 ITG card using a 40th anniversary jersey material (Enroth).

2012-13 Panini card using an Enroth 40th anniversary jersey game-worn memorabilia.

2013-14 ITG card showcasing a nameplate letter from a 2011-12 Sabres Anniversary jersey.

2013-14 Panini card showcasing some nameplate memorabilia from a Sabres Anniversary jersey from the 2010-11 season.

Using the process of elimination from the above jersey patching, I was able to determine the Sabres jersey used for this card was used during the 2011-12 season.

Enroth 2017 Superlative Shields (Front)

Enroth 2017 Superlative Shields (Back)

Leaf Trading Cards eventually acquired the remaining memorabilia pieces from In The Game after they had purchased the In The Game trade name and various assets back in 2014 from Brian Price, the former Owner & President of In The Game Trading Cards.I have showcased some photos of Enroth wearing these alternate anniversary jersey’s in the 2011-12 season. Personally, I always thought these 40th anniversary jersey’s looked great, so to have the shield from this jersey is really cool.