‘Make it affordable:’ Lethbridge couple repairing, selling broken hockey sticks

Merrill Green assesses a hockey stick. (CTV News)

As the cost of sports continues to rise, a Lethbridge couple is repairing broken hockey sticks one at a time to help reduce the financial burden.

Lee and Merrill Green have been collecting and repairing broken sticks out of their garage for several years.

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“We just needed something to do in our retirement years,” said Lee.

The couple has been working with Integral Hockey to take broken shafts and blades to restore them for use.

The Greens say the repair work costs 80 per cent less than the cost of buying a new hockey stick.

“It’s really hard on people,” said Merrill. “The dollar isn’t going as far anymore now, so we’ve been (working) a little bit with minor hockey to make it affordable.”

New hockey sticks can cost upwards of $500, but the Greens are able to sell the refurbished sticks for $100 and a lifetime warranty.

Merrill says with hockey costing families upwards of $2,000 per player annually, the side project is their way of helping out.

“We just want to give back and help out people who want to play hockey and want to use decent sticks,” Lee added.

Once collected, the repair process takes a few days before the sticks are ready to be used on the ice again, according to Lee.

The Greens were able to repair roughly 200 hockey sticks in 2024.

Since starting, they’ve joined forces with the Lethbridge Hurricanes to repurpose their sticks.

Inside their garage, the Greens currently have broken sticks from WHL players like Brayden Edwards, Leo Braillard and Brayden Yager ready for repair and to be sold.

The duo says they’ve been lucky enough to repair sticks that were once used by former Hurricanes and now NHLers Stuart Skinner and Dylan Cozens.

“There’s some value to making a purchase on a repaired stick,” said Merrill. “It still has the same flex, the same kick point.”

With the cost of sports continuing to rise, the Greens are not expecting business to slow down any time soon.

“Our sales have increased quite a bit now on repaired sticks; I would say we’re up a couple hundred sticks a year at least, which is a lot of work,” said Lee.