Historical Hockey and Sports Memorabilia Auction February 2025
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/18/2025
A joint venture between the IIHF and the National Hockey League and held in just 2008 and 2009, the Victoria Cup featured "one challenger, from Europe, was the winner of the IIHF European Champions Cup (in the 2009 edition) and then the Champions Hockey League (2009 edition). The other, from North America, was chosen by the NHL head office from among the teams that opened their NHL seasons with games in Europe." The 2008 game saw the New York Rangers defeat Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4-3, while the 2009 game featured the ZSC Lions beating the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1. We offer gold medals from each game, and they hail from the personal collection of noted Finnish hockey executive and writer Kimmo Leinonen. Identical in design, each medal is just over 2 1/4" in diameter, with raised logos of each team on the obverse, and a Victoria Cup logo on the reverse with "Zurich 2009" on the 2009 medal, and "Bern 2008" on the 2008 medal. Each medal also has the original black ribbon attached, with each showing just very light wear. An LOA from Classic Auctions will accompany.
Born in Tampere, Finland, in 1949, and beginning his rise in the hockey ranks as a junior hockey coach while also involved in the hockey stick industry in Canada and Germany, Finnish hockey executive and writer Kimmo Leinonen had a connection to the NHL as he was employed as a scout for the New York Rangers from 1978-79 to 1982-83. As a founding member of the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 - where he served as chairman from 2011 to 2018, Leinonen also helped to establish the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1996 and was the director of public relations and marketing for the organization from 1995 to 2007. His later career included an appointment as general secretary of the 2012 and 2013 Ice Hockey World Championships co-hosted in both Finland and Sweden. The hockey guru has written multiple books on the history of hockey in Finland, and for his great contributions to the sport, was inducted into the builder category of the Finnish Hall of Fame in 2011. He was further acknowledged as the only person from Finland to win the Paul Loicq Award in recognition for his efforts in international ice hockey in 2023. We are pleased to offer items from his personal collection that he acquired during his years as the IIHF director of public relations and marketing from 1995 to 1997, with others originating from later in his career as well as international hockey memorabilia he collected and items he was gifted.
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