Stanley Cup ring found in the Gulf of Mexico - 30 years after being lost.

Imagine winning the Stanley Cup (makes for a pretty good dream). Now imagine losing your Stanley Cup ring (makes for a pretty good nightmare). That's pretty much the story of Jim Pappin.

Pappin was a key member of the last Maple Leafs team to win the Stanley Cup (40 years ago...sorry Leaf fans). In 12 playoff games, he scored 7 goals and had 15 points - more than any other player - but that didn't convince the team that he should remain a Leaf. Pappin was traded to Chicago in 1968 and was so angry with Toronto that he gave his Stanley Cup ring to his father-in-law, Peter Kyrzakos, a die-hard Maple Leaf fan.

Unfortunately, Kyrzakos lost the ring at a beach in Florida in the 1970s. He hired people to find the ring, but it was seemingly lost forever. He didn't tell his son-in-law, but he did take Eddie Shack's ring to have a duplicate made. Kyrzakos gave the (replica) ring back to Pappin in 1982 and told him the story. Pappin gladly wore the replacement ring, thinking that the original was lost forever.

Fast forward 25 years. Mark DesErmia is a treasure hunter who found Pappin's ring three weeks ago in the Gulf of Mexico. He was offered $20,000 for the ring by a sports memorabilia collector, and he has thought about auctioning the ring on eBay, but DesErmia says that he'd be happy to give the ring back to Pappin for a reward. Something tells me that his reward will be pretty sweet, since Pappin says that he hopes to sell the replica ring (worth between $10,000 and $20,000).

What's really nice about this story is that the ring will mean a lot to Pappin's daughter, who was really close to her grandfather and will love to have something that he treasured so much.