Does a hockey player who scored just 26 goals in five NHL seasons really deserve a full-length biography? If that player is Bill Barilko, the answer is a resounding yes. That’s because, as most NHL fans – and fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Canadian rock music – know, Barilko attained legendary status in two very different ways, despite his short career.

In his final NHL game on April 21, 1951, Barilko scored a dramatic overtime goal against the Montreal Canadiens to clinch the Stanley Cup for the Leafs. Since then, Barilko’s name has been immortalized in Canadian hockey lore because of his disappearance, shortly after that moment of glory, while on a fishing trip in northern Ontario. As anyone familiar with the rock band The Tragically Hip and their 1992 hit “Fifty Mission Cap” knows, the skeletons of Barilko and his fishing partner, and the wreckage of the small airplane they were flying in, were not discovered until 1962.

Consequently, Torontonian Kevin Shea, a historian at the Hockey Hall of Fame, faces two main tasks in Barilko: to chronicle the rapid rise of the hard-hitting, Timmins-born “Bashing Bill” through the minor leagues and into the NHL, and to provide background and detail about the tragic death of this young player and the legend it inspired.

Shea accomplishes both in fine style, combining extensive use of interviews with members of Barilko’s family (most prominently his sister, Anne) and his former teammates and opponents with press reports of his on-ice accomplishments and his sudden disappearance. In one of the book’s best chapters, Shea even delves into the popularity of the Tragically Hip’s classic tune, a song he says “has done more to ensure the survival of the legend than any book, magazine or newspaper story.”

The book’s only weakness is Shea’s tendency to rely too heavily on material gleaned through interviews, especially those with Barilko’s sister, whose voice is so present in the narrative that readers will sometimes feel that they’re reading a book about her, and not her famous brother. But that’s a minor quibble, and it’s hard to imagine a more complete chronicle of both Barilko the player and Barilko the folk hero. At a time when NHL fans are either starved for pro hockey or are disillusioned with their ice heroes and the game they play, Barilko will come as a refreshing visit with a player from an era that’s long past, but not forgotten.