I WANT THIS COLLECTION PRESERVED. THIS HAS BEEN A BIG PART OF MY LIFE.

This museum, however, will soon need a new home.

Wilson, who would not disclose what he paid to amass his collection or estimate its value, says he plans to move out of the house in the next two years and does not plan to take the collection with him. He is in negotiations with an undisclosed organization to take it over but said he wanted to stay involved.

“I want this collection preserved,” Wilson said. “This has been a big part of my life.”

But he seems to value the personal connections even more than his brushes with greatness.

“To him, we’re just like normal guys who happened to play for the Maple Leafs,” former captain Rick Vaive said by phone.

No one is paid to visit. The only time Wilson raises money from the collection is when he collaborates with NHL personalties like Burke, an executive with the Calgary Flames, for a charitable cause. Those events, with tickets priced at $500 to $2,000, have allowed his NHL fraternity to raise around $1 million for a halfdozen causes, Wilson said.

“A lot of players are kind of guarded to do anything nowadays,” said Rick Tocchet, a former NHL player and now an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins. “But this is something they’re not scared to do.

“Players right away think: This guy’s all right. He’s not looking for a payday.”

At Gretzky’s urging, Tocchet took his teenage son on a pilgrimage to Wilson’s basement last summer and spent a couple of hours there.

“I texted Wayne, and he called me back 20 minutes later,” Tocchet said. “He doesn’t get impressed very often, but he was impressed with Mike’s basement. It’s quite a man cave, I’ll tell you that.”