2015-16 Upper Deck Young Guns Connor McDavid #201 RC

A rookie card on deadline

Upper Deck released 2015-16 Series One hockey on November 5, 2015, and promoted it as having the best class of Young Guns rookies since 2005-06, the year of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. The Young Guns subset had been a staple of the flagship set since it returned in 1999-2000, and it is the card most collectors mean when they talk about a modern hockey rookie.

McDavid's card came together fast. Running on a tight deadline, Upper Deck waited for his regular-season debut in October, nominated several photos and let fans vote on which would appear on his Young Guns card.

A hobby box held 24 packs of eight cards, and collectors could expect about six Young Guns per box. The base set had 200 cards, with parallels including Exclusives numbered to 100 and High Gloss versions numbered to 10.

The exceptional one

Connor McDavid was born January 13, 1997, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. In 2012 Hockey Canada granted him exceptional player status to enter the Ontario Hockey League a year early, only the third player to receive it after John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad, and the Erie Otters took him first overall.

Edmonton drafted him first overall in 2015. Sources differ on his NHL debut date, October 8 or 9, 2015, against St. Louis. On November 3 he fractured his left clavicle crashing into the boards and missed 37 games, but he still scored 16 goals and 48 points in 45 games and finished third in Calder Trophy voting.

On October 5, 2016, at 19 years and 266 days, he became the youngest captain in NHL history. That season he scored 100 points and won the Hart Trophy, the Art Ross Trophy and the players' MVP award. He has since won the Hart again in 2021, unanimously, and in 2023, when he scored 64 goals and 153 points, and has won six scoring titles, the latest in 2025-26.

The Stanley Cup has eluded him. In 2024 he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP even though Edmonton lost the final to Florida in seven games, the first player on a losing team to win it since 2003. Florida beat the Oilers again in the 2025 final. In February 2025 he scored the tournament-winning goal for Canada against the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Canada, 2015

McDavid's rookie card came out in a year of change in Canada. Toronto hosted the Pan American Games in July, and on October 19 Justin Trudeau's Liberals won a majority; he was sworn in as the 23rd prime minister on November 4, the day before the cards hit stores.

Packs of the same Series One product were also sold through Toys "R" Us stores, which got their own red parallel of the Portraits subset.

Thousands of perfect copies, and still in demand

Because the card was pulled about six times a box from a widely distributed product, Gem Mint copies are plentiful. PSA had graded 3,055 PSA 10s by late 2024, when a PSA 10 was selling for just over $2,000; 2026 listings show 3,298.

Prices have climbed with McDavid's career. On June 21, 2026, a PSA 10 sold at online auction for $2,520 with buyer's premium after 102 bids. Fixed-price sales on one U.S. marketplace ran from $2,750 to $3,120 in July and August 2026, and a price tracker recorded a PSA 10 sale of $3,100 on October 2, 2026; those sources do not identify the sale type.

The card's top end belongs to other versions. McDavid's 2015-16 The Cup rookie patch autograph, numbered to 99, holds his record: $228,000 in July 2022.

How to identify it

The card is #201 in 2015-16 Upper Deck Series One and carries the Young Guns logo. Upper Deck also made Exclusives parallels numbered to 100 and High Gloss parallels numbered to 10, plus Young Guns versions in its Canvas subset, which fell about one in every 48 packs. Those are different, scarcer cards.

Graded copies of the McDavid Young Guns trade by grade and grader, and an SGC 10 or a lower PSA grade is a different market. For this entry, the card must be the base #201 in a PSA 10 holder.

The numbers

2015-16 rookie season (card year)

45 GP, 16 G, 32 A, 48 PTS, -1. 3rd in Calder voting; All-Rookie team

2016-17 season

82 GP, 30 G, 70 A, 100 PTS. Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Pearson (players' MVP) Award

2022-23 season

82 GP, 64 G, 89 A, 153 PTS. Hart, Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies

2023-24 playoffs

25 GP, 8 G, 34 A, 42 PTS. Conn Smythe Trophy

2025-26 season

82 GP, 48 G, 90 A, 138 PTS. Art Ross Trophy

Career through 2025-26 (11 seasons)

796 GP, 410 G, 817 A, 1,227 PTS, all with Edmonton

Draft

2015 NHL Entry Draft, 1st overall, Edmonton Oilers

Timeline

1. Jan 13, 1997

   Connor McDavid is born in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

2. 2012

   McDavid receives exceptional player status and joins the Erie Otters.

3. 2015

   Edmonton drafts McDavid first overall.

4. Oct 2015

   McDavid debuts against St. Louis; Upper Deck holds a fan vote to pick his Young Guns photo.

5. Nov 3, 2015

   McDavid breaks his left clavicle and misses 37 games.

6. Nov 5, 2015

   Upper Deck releases 2015-16 Series One with the McDavid Young Guns #201.

7. Oct 5, 2016

   McDavid becomes the youngest captain in NHL history.

8. 2017

   McDavid wins his first Hart and Art Ross Trophies.

9. Jul 2022

   His The Cup rookie patch autograph sells for $228,000, his card record.

10. 2024

    McDavid wins the Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing the final to Florida.

11. Nov 14, 2024

    McDavid reaches 1,000 points in his 659th game.

12. Oct 6, 2025

    McDavid signs a two-year extension with Edmonton.

13. Jun 21, 2026

    A PSA 10 Young Guns sells at online auction for $2,520 after 102 bids.

The world in 2015

• Feb 15, 2015

  Canada marks the 50th anniversary of its national flag.

• May 5, 2015

  The NDP wins the Alberta general election.

• Jul 10, 2015

  The Pan American Games open in Toronto.

• Oct 19, 2015

  Justin Trudeau's Liberals win a majority in the federal election.

• Nov 4, 2015

  Trudeau is sworn in as the 23rd prime minister.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 2015-16 Upper Deck Young Guns Connor McDavid #201 RC is number 89 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (91 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Fans voted on the photo used for McDavid's Young Guns card.
• McDavid was only the third player granted exceptional status to enter the Ontario Hockey League early.
• He broke his collarbone less than a month into his rookie season, two days before his rookie card was released.
• He reached 1,000 points in 659 games, the fourth-fastest in NHL history behind Gretzky, Lemieux and Bossy.
• He won the 2024 playoff MVP award on the losing team.
• There are more than 3,000 PSA 10 copies of the card.