- Roger McQueen wore No. 95 on a Ducks sweater at the NHLPA x Upper Deck Rookie Showcase in Chicago
- The number is a nod to Lightning McQueen, the Piston Cup racer from Disney’s Cars
- Read below for the jersey sales angle and McQueen’s take on the showcase week
Roger McQueen finally got the Lightning McQueen jersey onto NHL ice.
Anaheim’s 2025 first-round pick wore No. 95 on an orange Ducks sweater at the NHLPA x Upper Deck Rookie Showcase in Chicago, and the photos are making the rounds now:
We tossed a Connor Bedard jersey joke in there, and it is not a crazy one. Bedard had the NHL’s top-selling sweater last season, ahead of Ovechkin, Crosby and McDavid, and nobody else in the league walks in with a Disney character already attached to his back.
The number is a nod to Lightning McQueen, the Piston Cup racer from Disney’s Cars, and it was locked in more than a year ago.
Drafted 10th overall in 2025, McQueen got a helicopter ride to Disneyland from the Ducks that weekend so he could meet the actual car.
Two days later he turned up at an Angels game in a No. 95 Ducks jersey. Here is how Anaheim rolled it out:
Twenty-one prospects took part in this year’s showcase at Blackhawks Ice Center in late July. Players sat for their first Upper Deck trading card shoots and filmed video for EA Sports and other league partners.
McQueen was asked what the week felt like in a room full of guys he had spent junior and college hockey trying to beat.
“You see so many of the guys playing against them, obviously not liking them for a bit and then you get to meet them and they’re all great,” McQueen told Tracey Myers of NHL.com. “It’s been fun. It’s great to be here.”
Ron Hainsey, the NHLPA’s assistant executive director, said the union moved the event up from early September to late July so players get more room to breathe before camps open. Chicago hosted for the first time after years in Washington.
Gavin McKenna got his first look in Maple Leafs No. 92 at the same showcase.
Whether the orange 95 shows up in Anaheim this fall is a real question. McQueen put up 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 36 games at Providence College last season and won Hockey East Rookie of the Year, then signed a three-year entry-level contract in April and played seven games with AHL San Diego on an amateur tryout.
That contract kicks in for 2026-27, which puts the No. 95 one training camp away from Honda Center.
