The 1947–48 NHL season was the 31st season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 60 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the Stanley Cup winners. They defeated the Detroit Red Wings four games to none. This season saw the introduction of a new trophy – Art Ross Trophy – that would be handed out to the player who scored the most points during the regular season.

The season saw the return of the National Hockey League All-Star Game, an idea that, although proposed in the previous season, came into fruition this year. The all-star game, however, saw a bad ankle injury to Chicago Black Hawks forward Bill Mosienko that nearly ended his career. Other stars would retire, ending both the Montreal Canadiens' Punch line and the Boston Bruins' Kraut Line. However, this season saw the creation of the Detroit Red Wings' Production Line. The policy of having players raise their hockey sticks to signify that a goal was scored was also initiated in this season, at the suggestion of Frank Patrick, with Habs forward Billy Reay being the first to do on November 13, 1947. The season also saw Boston's Don Gallinger suspended indefinitely pending an investigation of gambling activities and the New York Rangers' Billy "The Kid" Taylor being expelled for life for gambling.

William "Bashin' Bill" Barilko (March 25, 1927 – c. August 26, 1951) was a Canadian ice hockey player who played his entire National Hockey League career for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Barilko was of Ukrainian descent and had a brother, Alex, and sister, Anne.

In February 1947, Bill Barilko was called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs from the PCHL's Hollywood Wolves and played for Leafs until his death. He was assigned sweater #21 when he debuted for the Leafs. He changed to #19 for the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons. The #5 (which was retired by the Leafs) was only worn by Barilko for one season, 1950-51. During that span of five seasons, Barilko and the Toronto Maple Leafs were Stanley Cup champions on four occasions 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951. The last goal he ever scored (in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens' Gerry McNeil in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, on April 21, 1951) won the Leafs the Cup.

Four months later, on August 26, 1951, Barilko joined his dentist, Henry Hudson, on a flight aboard Hudson's Fairchild 24 floatplane to Seal River, Quebec, for a weekend fishing trip. On the return trip, the single-engine plane disappeared and its passengers remained missing. Eleven years later, on June 6, 1962, helicopter pilot Ron Boyd discovered the wreckage of the plane about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Cochrane, Ontario, about 35 miles off course. The cause of the crash was deemed to have been a combination of pilot inexperience, poor weather and overloaded cargo. Notably, the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup that year, after not winning it at all during the eleven years that he was missing.The Tragically Hip's song "Fifty Mission Cap", from their 1992 album Fully Completely, features Barilko's story and the lack of another Leafs championship with the lyrics "Bill Barilko disappeared, that summer, he was on a fishing trip. The last goal he ever scored, won the Leafs the cup. They didn't win another, 'till 1962, the year he was discovered."

Cecil Charles Cole Case, known as Box Case, born at Frome, Somerset on 7 September 1895 and died at Keyford, Frome, Somerset on 11 November 1969, played first-class cricket for Somerset as an amateur batsman between 1925 and 1935.

Case was a right-handed middle-order batsman whose batting technique, in one account, was "limited and effective". He also kept wicket very occasionally in the period at the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s when regular Somerset wicketkeeper Wally Luckes was ill. Although the Somerset side in Case's time often contained amateur players who appeared in relatively few matches, Case was virtually a regular, appearing in 255 matches for the county in 11 seasons, plus two for the Gentlemen in Gentlemen v Players games in 1931 and 1934.

Case was educated at King's School, Bruton. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Third Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment and served with the regiment throughout the First World War. In October 1918, the London Gazette reported he had been promoted to captain the previous December, but this notice was rescinded five days later. By 1919, he was on the reserve officer list. He left the army on 1 April 1920.

Walter Thomas John McKechnie (born June 19, 1947 in London, Ontario) is a retired Canadian professional hockey centre. He played for nine teams in the National Hockey League and four minor professional teams over a 17-year pro career.

McKechnie was drafted sixth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1963 NHL Amateur Draft of 16-year-old players. He played junior hockey with the London Nationals from 1965 to 1967 before turning professional with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the Western Hockey League in the 1967–68 season, where he was named the league's rookie of the year. In February 1968, he was acquired by the expansion Minnesota North Stars and played four games in the National Hockey League that season. For the next three years, he split his time between the North Stars and their minor league affiliates.

In May 1971, McKechnie was traded to the California Golden Seals and received a lot of ice time over his three years with the team, scoring 23 goals and 52 points in the 1973–74 season. In June 1974, he was involved in a three-way trade using the intra-league draft where he was claimed by the New York Rangers and immediately sent to the Boston Bruins for Derek Sanderson. He struggled with the Bruins and was dealt mid-season to the Detroit Red Wings. The next year in Detroit, he put up what would be his NHL career-high numbers, with 26 goals and 82 points, leading the team in scoring. McKechnie followed that a 25-goal season in 1976–77. After the season, he played for Team Canada in the 1977 world championships.

Murray Albert Dowey, sometimes referred to as Murray Downey, (born January 3, 1926) is a Canadian ice hockey player. He was a member of the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal in ice hockey for Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.

In 2001 Dowey was honoured by the Canadian Forces when it was announced that the 1948 RCAF Flyers were selected as Canada’s greatest military athletes of the 20th century.