Every collector loves a shield card.
However, today the shield I’m featuring today is something you’ve probably haven’t seen before, and includes some awesome pieces of hockey history, which I enjoy learning about.
That’s the thing about cards that I enjoy the most: Bringing small pieces of sports history into our lives. Let’s get into some hobby context before we dive a little deeper.
A few years ago, as a was first researching KHL cards for the collection, I quickly realized that heavy presence of SeReal cards. I was drawn to them initially for their impressive designs, but quickly realized they have been quite innovative in their products, too.
Founded in Riga, Latvia in 2011, SeReal has been the primary KHL card manufacturer for many years now. They are currently headquartered in Silakrogs, Latvia. Over the years, they’ve released a few basic seasonal sets, along with a mix of premium products with a variety of memorabilia.
After hearing about an upcoming premium product (KHL Platinum) a few years ago, I was eagerly anticipating what could be inside. Due to some serious delays in production, the 2021-22 KHL Platinum product wasn’t released until 2023. Still, even with the looong wait, it was very much worth it for me as I noticed a few higher-end Enroth cards in the product (score!). While I’ll never have them all, there was one or two particular cards I had my eye on the most.
In a feeble attempt to own one of these exceptional Enroth cards within this product, I even bought a box from Latvia myself and tried to pull one – Thinking it would be my only chance to own one of the cards I was after. While the break was unsuccessful, but I had a lot of fun opening that box, and eventually managed to use one of those cards for future PC additions. If you’re keen to learn more about that break, you can listen back to the podcast Episode # 74 that was released back in 2023.
Now, onto the memorabilia!
During the 2017-18 season, Dinamo Minsk wore special Home jersey’s during a handful of regular season games in 2018 (Calling it their Anniversary Series) to celebrate the teams 70th Anniversary. They wore these jersey’s from January 16th to 25th. The only difference from their regular Home jersey’s was a light blue banner under the front emblem highlighting the years 1948-2018. These anniversary alternate jersey’s were later auctioned off and acquired by SeReal.
When looking the dates of use, Enroth wore this jersey in the following regular season games:
January 16th, 2018 vs Amur Khabarovsk 2-0 Loss
January 18th, 2018 vs Kunlun Red Star 3-1 Loss
January 20th, 2018 vs Dinamo Riga 3-2 Win (*Winter Ice Break*)
January 22nd, 2018 vs Admiral Bratislava 3-2 Loss
As you can see from the list above, this KHL (КХЛ) shield card wasn’t just from any regular home games, but most notably, it was worn in the 2018 Winter Ice Break, which was the KHL’s version of the Winter Classic that year. This special outdoor event was held during Enroth’s first season in the KHL, and it was quite the spectacle.
On January 20th, 2018, the Winter Ice Break game featured the two Dinamo’s (Dinamo Minsk vs Dinamo Riga) facing off in an historic outdoor game, which happened to be just the 2nd outdoor game in KHL history, and the very first outdoor hockey game in Latvia. Together they gathered in Riga at the Riga City Council Sports Complex in front of a sold out crowd of 10,554 fans in attendance to watch this unique regular season game.
After a close game, Enroth and the rest of the Dinamo team earned the big 3-2 win. Enroth made 29 saves was also named the player of the game, too! I managed to find quite a few photos from the game, which you can see below. Always nice when you can match card memorabilia to actual game usage, especially from an outdoor game like this one. Extra cool!
I also found a short video highlighting this outdoor game. Enroth can be seen in action wearing the jersey this shield is from, and making some nice saves!
Aside from the Winter Ice Break, I mentioned that Enroth also wore this jersey in a few other games as well during the second half of the 2017-18 regular season during the team’s Anniversary Series in 2018. Aside from the Mastercard jersey sponsor logo added later on, the jersey is the same. More photo-matches below!
Always nice to document the history of these small pieces of cardboard and the memorabilia within with some quality photo-matches.
Now, onto the find & the deal…
After this KHL Platinum product first released, I was not able to track down the shield at first. I was lead to believe that it had been pulled at some point, but who and where it was, I had no idea. It was a real mystery at that point and time.
There are some serious team collectors who collect anything and everything Dinamo Minsk, so I was sure that if it didn’t surface quickly after release, the chances of finding a card of this magnitude was slim to none. At that point, the thought of ever owning such a notable card like this was just pushed out of my mind completely into the depths of “what could have been”.
Earlier this year, I managed to find a collector who was selling quite a few high-end cards from this product, which included some Enroth’s in a lot that he was breaking up. As luck would have it THE SHIELD (gasp!) was one of them! While the others cards in this lot are really nice, the shield was the big fish I was looking for after this product had released. It had now been found years later…
All of these other cards in this lot may very well never be added due to the price points on them and rabid team / player collectors over in Europe, but I am okay with that and have made my peace with it. While all of us player collectors (yes, that includes you) love to have that ‘”Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” attitude, it really is impossible to get everything in this hobby, especially in the modern era of cardboard. But the player collector in you will still tell you there is always the possibility. I’ve heard it once that us player collectors took a different pill than everyone else, and that’s not too far off from the truth!
With that being said, I am glad I was able to land the shield, as this is (in my opinion) Enroth’s best European card he will ever have, and one of the most unique with a great story to go along with it, too.
The collector who helped me out on this deal even mentioned to me that if I hadn’t inquired about this card when I did, another collector was going to purchase it the very next day. Talk about good timing. While I’m glad they honoured my initial interest in this card, especially since a deal had taken a while to actually complete due to the logistics involved, this story could have went in a very different direction.
After some lengthly negotiations, logistics, and the excruciatingly long wait for international shipping, the shield was finally in-hand. The deal from start to finish had taken around 3+ months to complete. To some, that may not feel that long, but after waiting years for the possibility of owning a card like this, each passing day felt like a lifetime. I’m sure my fellow player collectors can relate! Once I was notified that the card had arrived (after checking the tracking number an embarrassing number of times then I care to admit), it was like a second Christmas.
Normally when I pick something up at the post office, I make sure it’s home safe before opening up any mail. But this time, I just couldn’t help myself. I opened the package super slowly, as I wanted to enjoy every moment of landing a card like this. Maybe I’m being dramatic, but you just don’t see cards like this every day, so why not take it all in, you know?
Here’s a look at my mail day moment I had in my car after paying a visit to the local PO:
Not a bad day at the post office! Adding any 1/1 card is special, but a card like this is just different. As a fun twist, I really like how Enroth is wearing his Toronto Maple Leafs mask in this photo, which is a mask he wore at the beginning of the KHL season in 2017. The card itself is encapsulated in a one-touch magnet holder and sealed by a branded sticker.
For those who have been following my collection, the 1/1 card count for the Enroth collection now stands at 86 one of one cards in the collection.
With this recent addition, this card also completes a unique and uncommon game-used shield memorabilia “trifecta” that I never thought I’d be able to complete. The following 3 cards Feature the three pillars of Enroth’s career: Pre-NHL, NHL, and now post-NHL representation. Now that’s cool! I don’t think I’ve seen another shield variety quite like this represented in a single player collection before.
Check it out below: AHL, NHL, KHL
I hope you enjoyed the in-depth look at a shield card you may not come across often. I hope you learned something new about this hobby, and thanks for reading along as always.
If you have any key mail days coming up, I hope you can enjoy every second of it. After all, this is what collecting cards are all about!
Happy Collecting,
Aaron
CREASECOLLECTOR 
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