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.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“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.
Swaths of southern Ontario could see severe thunderstorms and flash floods on Sunday amid extreme heat.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued heat warnings and thunderstorm watches for parts of the province, as well as a thunderstorm warning for Stirling, Tweed and Madoc.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Forecasters say the area halfway between Toronto and Ottawa could see wind gusts up to 90 kilometres per hour and hail the size of nickels.
Meanwhile, police in Toronto say they received reports of water pooling on the Don Valley Parkway on Sunday morning.
A thunderstorm watch was in effect for the city, and police say some lanes of the DVP were restricted.
The heat in southern Ontario, where humidex values have reached 40 C, could last until Thursday.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Residents of a tiny rural community in eastern Ontario pressed police on Saturday for answers about a disturbing attack on a young girl that investigators believed was caused by an animal — until they arrested a teenager in the case.
Nearly 100 people filled a small community centre in Quadeville, about 170 kilometres west of Ottawa, for a town hall organized by Ontario Provincial Police to address residents’ questions and concerns about their investigation.
Some have asked why the OPP alerted the community about a suspected animal attack on the eight-year-old girl before announcing two weeks later that a 17-year-old boy had been charged with sexual assault and attempted murder.
Police have said that they never ruled out other possibilities, and that their initial theory was supported by medical and pathology experts.
At Saturday evening’s town hall, police did not divulge any new information about the case that is now before the courts, but sought to assure residents they did everything they could to keep them informed throughout the investigation.
The community centre was packed, with no empty seats to be found. As people filed in, the temperature in the room started to increase on a sweltering evening, especially after someone shut off the portable air conditioning unit that was making noise.
“It’s a very traumatic time for this community because everyone knows everyone involved,” OPP Supt. Derek Needham said at the meeting punctuated by some tense moments.
When police opened the floor for questions, a man who identified himself as a relative of the victim asked why it took a long time for police to respond when the girl was initially reported missing on June 23, after she was last seen at a local store.
Police replied that it took time to bring officers to the scene to search the area.
“I could’ve done my own investigation,” said the man, adding that he lives three hours away.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The OPP have said that they began their search for the missing child around 9 p.m. on June 23, and found her with life-threatening injuries not long after midnight.
Police asked people to keep their small children indoors amid fears of an animal attack but as their investigation continued, they discovered that there were no traces of animal DNA from the victim’s wounds. Police have not said what kind of evidence led them to arrest the teenage suspect, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Town hall attendee Sandy Musclow asked police how members of the community should interact with the families of the young girl and the suspect.
“A whole lot of healing needs to take place,” Needham said, adding that the best thing for families to do is reach out and have open communication.
After the town hall ended, Musclow said “it’s been a bit difficult to figure out” how to support both families.
“I’ve grown up with them and we really want to make sure that we feel like everyone can feel the pain and move forward together as a community,” she said.
Musclow said that although residents didn’t get much information about the police investigation at the town hall, she was glad to see the community come together. She also pointed to various fundraising efforts for the girl, who remains in hospital, and her family.
“I just feel that the police did a really good job at giving us some solace that they did the right thing for us and they did everything as timely as they could and they were really looking into everyone’s interest,” Musclow said.
OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson told reporters on Saturday that police were compelled to warn the public about a possible animal attack in the early stages of the investigation, even if they weren’t sure that was the case.
“We couldn’t undersell it because if we didn’t say something and warn people and it was an animal and another child was attacked, that would be horrible,” he said.
Dickson said one of the local churches is bringing in counsellors to work with the community and counselling services from the OPP will also be available.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
A new poll by Leger has found that Quebec residents are the happiest in Canada.
The web survey of nearly 40,000 Canadians found that Quebecers rated their happiness at an average of 72.4 out of 100, which is well above the national average.
New Brunswick followed Quebec with an average of 70.2, while Manitoba and Prince Edward Island finished at the bottom of the list.
Mississauga, Ont. had the highest happiness rating of the 10 largest cities, while Toronto was lowest.
Montreal finished second in the category.
The survey found that 49 per cent of respondents said their happiness level was unchanged over the past year, while 23 per said they were happier and 28 per cent said they were less happy.
“These results reveal a population that is both resilient and tested, affected by everyday uncertainty and challenges,” Leger’s executive summary read. “Happiness, while holding its ground overall, shows signs of fragility.”
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The survey found that people in the 18-to-24 and 24-to-34-year-old categories were more likely to report improved feelings of well-being, even if their overall happiness score remained below the national average.
In contrast, people in the 35-to-44 and 45-to-54 age brackets were more likely to report their happiness had deteriorated.
“There is a sense of well-being emerging among younger age groups,” the summary read. “However, this also highlights the importance of supporting adults in mid-life, who are more vulnerable to the pressures of working life.”
Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the three provinces with happiness levels above the national average of 68.7. They were followed, in descending order, by Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and P.E.I. The territories were not included in the survey.
In the survey of the 10 largest cities, Mississauga and Montreal finished ahead of Hamilton, Calgary, Brampton, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, in that order.
Women reported slightly higher happiness levels than men, at 69.4 versus 68.0.
Leger says the overall results confirm “a level of happiness that is relatively high but stagnant or even slightly down compared to the pre-pandemic period.”
To get the results, Leger surveyed 39,841 Canadians aged 18 and up between March 31 and April 13.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
-
Uncategorized1 month agoShop Proud, Eat Proud, Be Proud — Ottawa Canada Day Market This June 28th
-
4 weeks agoCanada’s world junior trial saw juries tossed, intense testimony. Here’s a recap
-
4 weeks agoMeasles circulating in northeastern B.C. community, health officials warn
-
4 weeks agoAnishinabek Nation chief says he briefed Ontario police on protests against Bill 5
-
4 weeks agoRing of Fire road to bring prosperity to First Nation, problems for caribou: report
-
4 weeks agoJagmeet Singh apologizes for attending Kendrick Lamar concert after Drake calls him out
-
4 weeks agoFormer major leaguer, Jays doctor Ron Taylor dies
-
4 weeks agoDreaming of a lakeside cottage but can’t afford it? Co-ownership could open that door