Hockey stick signed by Leafs legend Bill Barilko sells for $70K at auction
An old wooden hockey stick sold for tens of thousands of dollars at an auction in New Hamburg, Ont., over the weekend.
Granted, it was not just any old hockey stick but one which was signed by a number of Toronto Maple Leafs legends, including Bill Barilko in the summer he died.
The winning bid was for $60,000, a number which inflates to over $70,000 once one adds in the buyers’ premium as well as GST to the initial figure.
The stick was sold by Miller & Miller Auctions, as part of a sports memorabilia sale which also saw two 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball cards sell for more than $50,000 apiece.
Barilko’s story was famously retold by the Tragically Hip in their song “50 Mission Cap,” as he died in a plane crash in northern Ontario the summer of 1951 after scoring the game- and series-winning goal of the Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup win that year. They would not win another hockey crown until 1962, the year the wreckage was recovered.
Although this stick was not connected to that fishing trip, it was connected to another that the Leafs defenceman took with his teammates that same summer, according to Ben Pernfuss, who serves as the consignment director for sports cards and memorabilia with Miller & Miller.
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“After the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in the 1951 season, Bill Barilko and a number of his teammates went on a fishing trip up north and they stayed at a cottage as a bit of a halfway point before they got on a flight to go farther north,” he said.
“They gifted the cottage owner a couple of sticks autographed by Barilko and the people who joined Barilko on the fishing trip.
“And this was one of those sticks, and it just happened to be a number five-stamped, Bill Barilko stick.”
He said the stick has changed hands a couple of times over the years, but this is the first time it ever went to the open market.
“The one thing to note is that it’s signed by Barilko and a number of the other Toronto Maple Leafs players, which is exceedingly rare just because Barilko died so young and didn’t have the opportunity to sign much in his time with the Leafs,” Pernfuss said.
It is a Barilko model from Love & Bennett, a sporting goods store, which supplied sticks to many players at the time. It has the appearance of being game-worn but Miller & Miller could not confirm whether that was the case.
“The stick is taped for game use that matches Barilko’s style and puck marks and lower hand grip wear indicates the stick was likely game used but without photo matching, no guarantees can be made, thus, the stick is being represented as game issued,” the listing for the stick says.
It was also signed by a lengthy list of other Leafs legends, including Turk Broda, Ted Kennedy, Joe Klukay, Cal Gardner, Fleming Mackell, Ray Timgren, Howie Meeker, Harry Watson, Bill Juzda, Sid Smith, Max Bentley, Al Rollins and Tod Sloan.
The auction house placed an estimate of between $3,000 and $5,000 on the stick.
“There were bids from all over Canada and even some all over North America, really, and most of the bidding happened at the end,” Pernfuss explained.
The auction house would not say who was adding the special stick to their collection but did confirm it would remain somewhere in southern Ontario.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Spirits maker Diageo will cease operations at its bottling facility in Amherstburg, Ont., early next year, as it shifts some bottling volume to the U.S., the company announced on Thursday.
The facility, which bottles Crown Royal products, will close in February in a move aimed at improving its North American supply chain.
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About 200 jobs will be affected.
“This was a difficult decision, but one that is crucial to improving the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chain network,” Marsha McIntosh, Diageo’s president of North America supply, said in a statement.
Diageo said it will engage with the community and find ways to support its employees through the transition, and work alongside Unifor to assist unionized workers.
The company said it will still maintain a “significant” footprint in Canada — including its headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area, and bottling and distillation facilities in Manitoba and Quebec.
McIntosh added the company’s Crown Royal products will continue to be mashed, distilled and aged at its Canadian facilities.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Toronto police say a 33-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly striking two men with his car Wednesday evening.
Officers say they responded to reports of a collision in the area of Don Mills Road and Gateway Boulevard in the city’s North York neighbourhood just before 10:30 p.m.
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Police say two men got into an argument, leading to one man getting into his car and hitting the other man with it.
They say the man then put his car into reverse, striking a second man.
A man in his 50s was transported to hospital with serious injuries and the second man, in his 20s, had minor injuries.
Police say the suspect from Markham, Ont., faces several other charges as well, including two counts of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and dangerous driving.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
A court document shows a Lindsay, Ont., man facing charges for allegedly breaking into an apartment was carrying a crossbow when he was confronted by a tenant.
The resident, Jeremy David McDonald, is also facing assault charges in the incident on Aug. 18 — a fact that has generated widespread interest in the case.
Police information filed in court alleges that Michael Kyle Breen damaged a window and screen at McDonald’s home and carried a crossbow.
The court document says the 41-year-old Breen is charged with break and enter, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, mischief under $5,000 and failing to comply with a probation order.
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Police have said that Breen, who is scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing next week, was already wanted for unrelated offences.
McDonald, the 44-year-old resident, was charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon after he allegedly “did endanger the life” of Breen.
Premier Doug Ford blasted the decision to charge the apartment resident, saying last week that it shows “something is broken.”
Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Kirk Robertson wrote in a statement Wednesday that he recognizes the incident has generated significant public interest and “emotional” responses, but called some of the reaction “unjust and inaccurate.”
Robertson wrote that individuals have the right to defend themselves and their property, but the law requires that any defensive action be proportionate to the threat faced.
“This means that while homeowners do have the right to protect themselves and their property, the use of force must be reasonable given the circumstances,” he wrote.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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