It was January 2005 when Aaron Logan decided to make a career change.
Nearly 20 years later, that change keeps Logan on the move, particularly between NHL arenas. He was back at AMALIE Arena on Tuesday night to help the Tampa Bay Lightning honor the winningest goalie to wear the Bolts crest.
Logan is the namesake and owner of Logan Sports Group, a company which crafts custom awards to commemorate career milestones for professional athletes. Logan has visited Tampa twice this season to honor Andrei Vasilevskiy, creating a gold replica stick to celebrate Vasilevskiy’s 300th NHL win in November as well as a silver stick after the goalie played his 500th NHL game last week.
Vasilevskiy previously said he hadn’t decided on a resting place for the gold stick but knew it would be somewhere “special”.
Vasilevskiy was presented the silver stick before Tuesday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. After dropping off the gold stick earlier this year, Logan said creating the awards is an “honor”.
"In the history of the game, of the greatest goalies that have ever played, he's the 40th player ever to get to that number (300 wins), and he's not done yet. There've been thousands of goalies who never came even near that,” Logan said. “It just shows the excellence that these guys have. So for me, truly it's an honor to work with not just the teams to make it, but to watch and see these players receive it.”
Logan used to work in play-by-play broadcasting for the Sudbury Wolves and London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He eventually moved to the golf industry until he was presented with an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.
When a Canadian wooden hockey stick manufacturer went bankrupt in 2005, Logan bought the factory with the idea of crafting custom full-sized wooden sticks for teams to use when celebrating milestones.
The 2004-05 NHL lockout followed, but so did NHL interest—Logan contracted with the Edmonton Oilers and now works with 29 of the 32 NHL teams, crafting custom bronze, silver and gold sticks and pucks to celebrate milestones.
When teams recognized their three stars after games, players would sign wood sticks and throw them over the glass as “cherished mementos” for fans, Logan said.
"When you were coming back from the lockout, people are upset, you're trying to create some goodwill in the community. Why not get a stick, have it signed by your players? You can do a team sign, or just a single sign, alumni, whoever it is, and it'll help you kind of create some goodwill in the community,” Logan said.
"And it took off.”
‘I still get choked up every time’
Logan Sports Group still makes 25,000 to 30,000 wooden sticks per year. The company molds about 15 silver sticks, a handful of gold sticks as well as pucks and other awards each year.
The collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHL Players Association (NHLPA) recognizes players for a variety of achievements—goalies are usually recognized with a silver stick for reaching 500 career games as well as 40 shutouts, while skaters receive award sticks for 1,000 games, 500 goals and 1,000 points.
Bronze and silver pucks are also created for achievements such as 400 assists by a defenseman. Logan has produced multiple milestone sticks for the Lightning to recognize players including Vasilevskiy, Victor Hedman, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos. He also works with MLB and NFL teams.
Logan reaches out to teams each summer to point out future milestones. As the season starts, he tracks each player’s progress daily.
When a milestone is reached the team ships Logan one of the player’s game sticks, which gets scanned into a computer. An exact replica is made in a metal fabrication machine out of either bronze or stainless steel. The fabrication process, including metal fabrication, engraving, polishing and welding, takes about 40 hours total.
The lie and pattern of each stick are an exact match to the player’s game-used stick, and the award is engraved with details about the milestone and player’s career.
Players have told Logan they appreciate that every milestone stick is unique to them.
"Sidney Crosby said that to me after he got his 1,000-point stick. He said, 'Oh, I just expected to be getting a gold stick.' He says, 'I looked down and went, ‘Hey, that's my pattern.' Guys know their equipment like nothing else. That's their tools of their trade, and to know that that stick that they receive is representing what they actually use just makes it a little bit more personal to them. And I know that for those guys, they appreciate the care that we take in making it for them like that.”
Vasilevskiy’s stick required special attention—Vasilevskiy uses a Bauer HyperLite goalie stick, which has a unique concave paddle with different angling than most goalie sticks. Vasilevskiy’s milestone sticks weigh 38 pounds, while the average skater stick weighs 22 pounds.
Logan builds different solid blocks of metal to create the paddle, the shaft and the blade of the sticks before welding and putting them together.
“That one takes extra time, takes extra time to get all the polishing done, gets all the real attention to detail. My guy, Sheldon, my fabricator, he worked hours on that to get it right, much more closely than we have to on another goalie stick.”
Vasilevskiy hit 300 wins on a Thursday, and with the recognition ceremony two nights later, there wasn’t time to ship the stick. Logan flew the stick down himself to make sure it made it to the ceremony.
He did it again on Tuesday, watching Vasilevskiy’s 500-game ceremony in person at AMALIE Arena. Nearly every such ceremony brings emotions, and Logan feels them.
"It's never lost on me that that little kid, that little guy that I was, he now gets to stand in arenas and watch these moments happen. Tonight when Andrei and his family were standing on the carpet, I still get choked up every time.”
