KAGAWONG—The keeper of the Stanley Cup, Phil Pritchard, who presents the cup to the winning team in the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff finals every year will be part of the 2026 History Day in Kagawong celebrations.

“Steve Paikin originally had the idea of focusing on hockey for the History Day in Kagawong,” explained Rick Nelson, curator of the Old Mill Heritage Museum in Kagawong. “I had said to him about two or three years ago that we were looking for ideas for future history day events and Steve said, ‘why not feature hockey?’”

“I told him at the time I would put that idea on hold for a couple of years because we have a number of things planned for the next couple of years,” said Mr. Nelson. “Now that we featured the Old Mill 100th anniversary in 2025, I thought this would be a good time to revisit Mr. Paikin’s suggestion.”

“I approached Mr. Paikin about co-hosting a panel on hockey for history day and he jumped on the idea of participating and co-hosting it and having multiple people on the panel to interview. This would be the same as the panel agenda we had for this year’s History Day celebrations.”

Since then, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Paikin have met with Randy Carlyle (who has had a cottage on Manitoulin Island for many years), a former NHL hockey player and coach of the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks in 2007. “Mr. Carlyle has agreed to sit on the panel along with other hockey people,” said Mr. Nelson.

Mr. Nelson said he is hopeful that Reggie Leach, who lives on Manitoulin and was a member of the Stanley Cup Champion Philadelphia Flyers in 1975, will be on hand as well. “I’m hoping we can get Reggie here for history day, but he goes to Manitoba every summer to visit family, so he might not be on the Island at the time of our history day event. But I’m meeting with him in October to discuss all of this. We’re hoping he can be part of our event.” 

“Rod Schutt, who is a brother-in law of Mike Topazzini, will be participating on the panel,” said Mr. Nelson. “We will be calling other NHL players, and former NHL players about being on the panel.”

“We have already confirmed Phil Pritchard, the keeper of the (Stanley) Cup from the Hockey Hall of Fame to be on the panel. He will no doubt have a wealth of hockey stories to share,” continued Mr. Nelson. “He escorts the Stanley Cup to the winning team at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup finals. He will also be trying to bring the Stanley Cup here, if there is no conflict with players from the Cup winning team who each get to take the cup to their hometown during the summer. Regardless, Mr. Pritchard will be bringing with him other trophies such as the Four Nations Cup that Team Canada won this past February.”

“At our most recent (Billings) museum committee meeting we confirmed History Day in Kagawong 2026 will focus on hockey,” said Mr. Nelson. “In order to fill out our hockey display in the museum, we are asking for members of the public who have hockey memorabilia from Manitoulin Island, and the NHL, if we could borrow the items to be displayed next summer in the museum. This could include such items as autographed photographs, autographed player jerseys, pucks, hockey cards, sticks, tickets, programs and the like. We already have someone who is going to provide an autographed team hockey stick from the Toronto Maple Leafs 1967 team, the last time they won the Stanley Cup.”

“At our last meeting, Dianne Fraser, a member of our museum committee brought an autographed Jean Beliveau number 4, Montreal Canadiens jersey. This is the type of item we are looking to have on display in the museum,” said Mr. Nelson. 

“We want to start early in getting items in so we can build our hockey exhibit after the museum closes after Thanksgiving, so that it will here on display when we reopen in the spring,” said Mr. Nelson. Anyone with hockey memorabilia they are interested in providing for the museum display can contact Mr. Nelson at the museum at 705-282-1442 or via email at oldmillheritage@billingstwp.ca.