A Vancouver Canucks hockey stick and signed jersey from captain Bo Horvat has made its way to a Nanaimo, B.C., boy following an intense series of ups and downs.
Linden Erwin was at a Canucks game in Edmonton on Dec. 23 when he received a special gift from Horvat.
The young Canucks fan was hoping to get a hockey card signed, but ended up being gifted a stick from the team’s captain.
Linden was thrilled until he realized he had to place the stick with checked luggage on his flight home from Alberta to B.C.
During the flight with Flair Airlines, the stick got lost in transit.
After Linden’s mom, Janelle Staite, made an appeal to the Canucks to help track the stick down, Horvat decided to go one step further and promised to give the Nanaimo family a new stick.
Several weeks after the stick went missing, Flair Airlines told CTV News it had found the misplaced hockey stick and promised to send it to Linden as well.
While the rediscovery of the stick would’ve been a happy enough ending on its own, former Canucks goaltender Kirk McLean arrived at Linden’s home in Nanaimo on Tuesday with the team’s mascot, Fin, and gave the family the new stick and jersey.
“It’s a great feeling. There was a big smile on his face when we rolled up,” McLean said in a video posted to the Canucks Twitter account on Wednesday.
“I mean, that’s what we do, that’s what we’re here for,” he said. “The community is huge for the Vancouver Canucks and whatever we can do to make people happy and to fix things once in a while is super important and we love doing it.”
In the video, Linden says he’s going to hang the new jersey and stick in his room.
“The Canucks room,” his brother, Marshall, clarified.
“Yeah, the Canucks room now,” said Linden.
By Adam Chan CTV News Vancouver