During that span of five seasons, Barilko and the Toronto Maple Leafs were Stanley Cup champions on four occasions: 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951.

[6] The last goal ever scored by Barilko was in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens' netminder Gerry McNeil.

[7][8] On the return trip to Porcupine Lake, the single-engine plane disappeared and its passengers remained missing.

The 1993 song "Fifty Mission Cap" by The Tragically Hip is about Barilko's death and the Leafs' subsequent Stanley Cup drought.

In 2017, TSN aired the short documentary film The Mission, profiling a project to recover the remaining wreckage of Barilko's plane; the film took its title from "Fifty Mission Cap", and it thematically touched on the song's role in Barilko's story.