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What do Cam Neely, Brendan Morrison, Larry Walker and the late Greg Moore have in common with The Stickhandler?
They all got their start in beautiful Maple Ridge, BC. In fact, the two hockey players have achieved greatness in the NHL with Cam Neely being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Brendan Morrison centering the Vancouver Canucks #1 line. The Stickhandler has not yet been named to The Hockey Hall of Fame but some day it might. As the careers of these players and exceptional sportsmen prove: Big things can come from small places.
How does the statement: Necessity is the mother of invention fit in the world of hockey?
If you answered, Like a glove to a stick, you'd be partially correct.
In the case of The Stickhandler, you need to take one 9-year-old son, a hockey coach dad, two duffel bags filled with skates, equipment, jerseys and miscellaneous other items. Add crowded corridors, icy parking lots, small hands filled with big items including two unwieldy hockey sticks and you get the NEED for a way to carry the sticks safely.
Dan Mason, inventor of The Stickhandler, is the hockey coach dad. The need to find a way for his son to safely maneuver through 40 or more arenas every season, necessitated the creation of The Stickhandler. Dan searched high and low, hockey stores, online and offline, sports shops and second hand shops for a safe solution to meet his son's need. There were none.
Being a handy kind of guy, Dan created a safe, easy to use and affordable way for him and his son to carry their sticks. One thing led to another. Other sons' fathers saw his invention and asked if he'd build them one too. 132 'built in the garage' Stickhandlers later, Dan realized his invention met a pressing need in the world of minor hockey. And, the rest, as they say, is history - Hockey Hall of Fame history that is - or so Dan Mason's son dreams. An avid player, the young sportsman dreams of big things leading from the arenas of his Maple Ridge roots. As to The Stickhandler - there are a lot of sticks out there, waiting to be carried. Who knows where fame will take it?
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