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Who have you met from the NHL over the years?


halifax

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Played with and met too many to list.

Probably best story for this board was while playing in OHL we used to skip school and play NHLPA 93 tournaments (with Steve Sullivan and Dan Cloutier and other rookies like myself) at Sully's house across the street from our high school.

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  • 2 years later...

I am 11 and have met a good amount!

JVR

Mark Mowers

Andrew Leach

Andy Brickley

Terry O'Reilly

Cleon Daskalakis

Bobby Butler

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Cool thread, here's my contribution:

I got to meet a few old legends when my dad played in a firefighters vs. ex nhl'ers thing up in Alaska years and years ago. I met Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, and Marcel Dionne, among others. Hull was by far the coolest to meet for me since I've always been a diehard Hawks fan, he was incredibly nice and signed so much s**t for me and my dad, jerseys, hats, sticks pucks, you name it.

I've met Scott Gomez on a couple occasions, he's a very nice guy. He brought the cup up to Anchorage after he won it his rookie year which was awesome to see as a kid. He has all kinds of great stories about NHL guys that hes hung out with over the years, my favorite being the one he told about Brett Hull. Apparently Gomez was in a bar with both Brett and Bobby Hull, and they're sitting there drinking some beers. A woman and a teenage boy approach Brett, and the woman says "Hey Brett, I'm so and so and you may not remember when we got together years ago, but this is your son". Brett barely reacts and says to the kid "Well, I guess this is your grandpa then" as he points to Bobby and continues to sip his beer.

I used to play youth hockey against Brandon Dubinsky when I was 14-15 years old, he was quite the little dangler. From what I hear he is a pretty large douchebag in adulthood. My sisters husband told me a story this summer about Dubinksy hitting on my sister at some party in Alaska a year or two ago, he actually came up to her and said "Hey, do you know me? she says "No." and he responds with "Trust me, you want to know me". So along with Matt Cooke, Dubinsky is on my short list of NHL'ers that I'd like to knock out if given the opportunity.

Edited by NorthwayNative
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LOL at so much at this thread. Thanks for reviving.

My only contribution was getting almost the entire '94 NYR team to sign my hat. I used to go to a bunch of games, and one time my friend and I just waited outside with everyone for the players to leave the Garden. To my surprise, they all came out, one by one, and were cool to sign autographs. Everyone except Messier, Graves, and Leetch...those guys left in a limo. <_<

But my favorite players (Zubov, Kovalev, Richter, etc) all signed. They were all cool.

The one guy who was a dick was Glenn Healy. He basically took my pen and scribbled circles on my hat while giving me the jerk smirk face. You have to remember, Healy was a NYI for the previous few years (Rangers and Islander fans HATE each other), so here I was, just asking everyone to sign my hat, and not just my favorite players, and I think Healy knew that and decided to make his point. Whatever, Potvin sucks!

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I played on a high school rec team with Matt Carkner. He assisted my only goal (breakaway, sweet backhand, in the dying seconds of the last game!). He would play D, and every time the puck went into the corner, you knew he was going to come out with it. He'd pass it every time, too (even though he surely could have just bowled through everyone like he was Lindros). Never actually talked to him, but he seemed like a good guy, and I was surprised when he ended up being a fighter in the NHL. On the other hand, he always always passed it into my skates, so maybe that explains it.

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Clint Malarchuk lives in my town.

Spoke with him for a bit down by the river near my house as we were both throwing balls for our dogs.

His ex-wife lives right around the corner from us.

ESPN just did a cool special on him.

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Guest goursie19

One time I went to Julio's Barrio down in Edmonton for lunch, then in the table right behind us Hemsky, Souray, Horcoff and a few other prospects were just chilling. I met Glenn Hall in Stony Plain when they named the arena after him (1st time seeing the cup in person) too

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  • 1 year later...

Was at a charity game tonight. And while I didn't get to meet the players, I took a couple pics of the boys that were in '94. Bourque, Iafrate, Richer, Krushelnyski and Nilan.

The NHL team won 21-4 and Richer had 11 points. That guy can still rip it hard, it was sick.

post-457-0-58797000-1417666370_thumb.png

post-457-0-38518100-1417666390_thumb.png

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I've met Fleury a few times. The first time was at an autograph signing at a local drugstore for whatever reason. He had a hockey school in Calgary back in the day. He didn't show up much, but I do have one memory from him being there. The instructor was going over a drill for us, and mentioned if we did it wrong, we would "fall on our ice." Fleury was standing next to me and nudges me, and asks if I got the joke. I was about 10 at the time, so we found that sort of thing funny. He used to have a charity golf tournament that I volunteered at, but he recently stopped doing it, as he said he doesn't have time for it (he literally only has to show up to play golf one day a year). I met him a few times there as well. He seems bigger in person. I'm only 5'6 as well, but he seemed a lot bigger than me.

I was doing the check-in at the golf tournament a few years ago, and some guy that I didn't recognize came up, so I just treated him like any guy off the street. Ends up it was Jordan Eberle.

I've also met Kevin Dahl and Trevor Kidd.

I remember a guy in high school asked Lanny McDonald to bootleg for him, but big surprise it didn't work out.

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Was at a charity game tonight. And while I didn't get to meet the players, I took a couple pics of the boys that were in '94. Bourque, Iafrate, Richer, Krushelnyski and Nilan.

The NHL team won 21-4 and Richer had 11 points. That guy can still rip it hard, it was sick.

attachicon.gifBourque.png

attachicon.gif94 boys.png

Does Iafrate still rock the skullet?

post-1603-0-35439200-1417677574_thumb.jp

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Staal and Pyatt boys are all in town over the summers, used to run into Lee Fogolin fishing on the lake in the summers.

Got to meet Mr. Stanley in 2006 (Eric Staal), 2009 (Jordan Staal), 2010,2013 (Patrick Sharp).

Ran into Doug Gilmour at the 2011 NHL draft in Minneapolis... and a bunch of Leafs/Wings alumni at the Winter Classic last year.

Also talked briefly with Glen Healy before our flight to Windsor, nobody even approached the guy. Guy is very awkward, and considering the CBC contingent heading to Ann Arbor for the Classic, was pretty telling that he was travelling alone.

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The one guy who was a dick was Glenn Healy. He basically took my pen and scribbled circles on my hat while giving me the jerk smirk face. You have to remember, Healy was a NYI for the previous few years (Rangers and Islander fans HATE each other), so here I was, just asking everyone to sign my hat, and not just my favorite players, and I think Healy knew that and decided to make his point. Whatever, Potvin sucks!

Also talked briefly with Glen Healy before our flight to Windsor, nobody even approached the guy. Guy is very awkward, and considering the CBC contingent heading to Ann Arbor for the Classic, was pretty telling that he was travelling alone.

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  • 1 month later...

I am very proud to say I got the autograph of NHL94's greatest player, JR, when he was with the Hawks. I stupidly first got the autograph of a 4th line player, Shantz, who had such a gigantic signature on the plastic puck, that very little room was left for JR. So JR's autograph is much smaller than I would have liked. JR, commented "Shantzee didn't leave me any room". lol

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  • 9 months later...

Wayyyy back at the old Chicago Stuadium when I was just a young lad, I was at a Hawks/Rangers game. Afterwards I stood out by gate 3 1/2 (I think) where all the players exited the stadium. I had a puck with a Rangers emblem that I brought to the game. As the players came out, I just held it out to any Rangers guy that would sign it.

Who ended up signing it??? ... Sergei Nemchinov ... The Nemchinator YES!

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I forgot to mention that I took some goalie lessons taught by a Sens minor leaguer. Might have been Mike Fontain (http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=1754). He played 11 NHL games, so, technically... NHLer!

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My dad used to work for Gunzos when i was really young. Gunzos supplied the Hawks with all their equipment so I grew up meeting a lot of older Hawks players from Bobby Hull to Stan Mikita to Joey Cora. When I was older, I had drinks with Joey Cora and he explained the politics of fighting in the NHL. Really cool guy.

In fact, a real highlight growing up was a situation where I met Stan Mikita. While meeting Stan was really cool, what was even better was not 10 minutes later, watching my dad check him into the boards during an alumni charity game. HAHA

I asked my dad afterwards "Dad, what are you doing? It's a friendly, why did you check Mikita?"

My dad smiled and responded "He got in my way"

Awesome.

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Habs Alumni game for charity last night.

Only one player from '94 - Stephane Richer (can still wire the puck).

Others included Nilan, Shutt, J.Lemieux

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 years later...

I have 'met' the Stanley Cup, when it made its way to my hometown back in 2001.  Dan Hinote, graduated two years ahead of me brought it home after he won the Cup with the Colorado Avalanche.  They used the cup as a fundraiser for the local hockey association.  I got my tickets (my wife then fiance was with me) and we near the front of the line.  We quickly realized we had made a crucial mistake.  We didn't bring a camera.  So strangely, we got to go see the cup, we shook Danny's hand, congratulated him and he seemed to ask are we going to take a picture.  I said, sorry, I don't have a camera and said no big deal...I won't forget this!  I didn't touch the cup because I didn't win it.  He did.  Still, my wife and I felt pretty stupid by not having a camera.  Oh well, it happens.  

Another player from my hometown graduated 3 years after me and that was Paul Martin.  I've known Paul since he was in elementary school as I had a brother that was a year younger then Paul and they battled each other in a variety of sports.  He is perhaps the best pure athlete I've ever personally known.  He was outstanding at nearly any sport he ever tried.  He played WR as a freshman in HS when I was a senior.  I went to a bigger HS and that was something that never happened but Paul was a pretty incredible athlete.  In fact I think he held the record for receptions in the state until just recently.  He was also an exceptional basketball player and baseball player too.  I had a chance encounter with him shortly after he was drafted by the New Jersey Devils and was still going to the University of Minnesota.  I didn't talk to him about hockey at all, just talked about being in college mostly.  Since he retired from the NHL last year, he's back at the University of Minnesota going to finish off his degree and is helping with the Gophers men's hockey team.  Super humble, no ego at all and very nice.  

I have had other encounters more brief encounters too with NHL'ers too.  

I interviewed Jordan Leopold for an article I wrote once.  Talked to him for a good 40 minutes.  Instant replay was just about to be implemented and I asked him if he ever thought about how that may have resulted in him winning a Stanley Cup with the Flames back in 2004.  

I interviewed Brennan Menell for another article I wrote.  He's only had a cup of coffee in the NHL with a few games with the Minnesota Wild but he'll probably get another shot someday with how well he's playing in the KHL right now.  A great story of a kid who took the less traveled path to the league by being a Minnesota HS that went to play Canadian Junior, was undrafted but just kept working hard that he earned a pro contract after a strong performance at the team's prospect camp as a tryout.  

I had a chance to talk with newly minted Wild head coach (at the time) Mike Yeo and young defenseman Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella.  Those three just were coming off a run to the Calder Cup finals with the Houston Aeros.  Coach Yeo talked about how the coaching staff would play against the Black Aces to keep them on their toes after the end of practices during the AHL playoffs.  I asked Spurgeon and Scandella if the coaches won those games or if the players did...the players said Yeo and the coaches did and everyone got a bit of a laugh.  

I met Antti Laaksonen, Brad Bombardir at a Wild fan meet-n-greet during their early years.  Great guys, funny and I joked with Brad he might get a job in commercials someday because of his performance in a seatbelt ad he was in.  He laughed and now he's working with the Wild as the team's director of player development.  

I have met former Minnesota North Star and current Wild's radio analyst Tom Reid many times at his restaurant near Xcel Energy Center.  He likes to make his way around and talk to customers.  I normally would go to his place to watch the NHL draft and he'd ask us about the team and we'd bounce questions off of him.  Great food, tons of great memorabilia there too!  

My wife has met Matt Johnson, Jamie McLennan, and Jeff Nielsen at Reid's after a Wild game.  At one point, Tom Reid came down to join the talk between fans and players and a drunk came in wanting to throw a punch at Tom.  It didn't go too well for the drunk but despite the stupidity of drunken guy they had a good time teasing one another as a fan brought a Matt Johnson rookie card that amused McLennan who got a kick of how young the enforcer looked.  

Then perhaps the most surprising one of all was our chance encounter at meeting the majority of the 2003-04 Ottawa Senators team.  My wife and I went on Spring Break to Quebec.  One of the things we did was go to a Montreal Canadiens game.  About halfway through the 3rd period, an Ottawa fan who I had chatted with during the intermission asked me if I wanted to meet the players.  At first I thought he was give me a line of BS.  I said, "For real?"  He said "Yea, do you want to go?  We're going to the Ottawa locker room so she can't come in but do you want to go?"  I looked back at my wife and she shrugged her shoulders in indecision and said, "Ok, sure why not."  So the game ends, (I was wearing my Montreal jersey) my wife had a Minnesota North Stars jersey.  He told me to zip up my jacket because of my Montreal jersey and we walked down towards the lower part of Bell Centre.  We got to a security checkpoint and I thought we'd find out the guy was a phony but sure enough we were allowed through although they said the players were exiting the locker room so we were allowed to wait near the team bus.  We were waiting by the bus and the players started making their way to it and this guy and his friends (where they did memorabilia work as their job) would kind of meet them and they said, "hey these two people came all the way from Minnesota just to see you" and then they'd come over and we'd talk, shake hands.  Then (even though I wasn't going to ask) they'd say how about we take a picture, and would you sign their game program.  The Senators players were pretty happy since they had won 4-0 and so they gladly took a picture and signed our program.  For most of the players the encounter was pretty quick, but for the tough guys; like Rob Ray and Chris Neil they stuck around and we talked for maybe 5-10 minutes.  Rob Ray especially liked my wife's North Stars jersey and talked about of his memories fighting against Shane Churla or Basil McRae and we laughed.  The guy had just giant meathooks for hands and a cement skull.  But they were extremely kind and in good spirits.  So over the course of what had to have been about 30-40 minutes we met the following players: Rob Ray, Chris Neil, Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Antoine Vermette, Jason Spezza, Patrick Lalime, Radek Bonk, Curtis Leschyshyn, Martin Prusek, Mike Fisher, Wade Redden and Chris Philips.  One of the more funny moments was Antoine Vermette (who was a rookie that year), he saw us and asked us to wait while he put his bag and his chicken (all of the players were carrying St. Hubert's Chicken in a box after the game) on the bus and then he ran back out to meet us.  We thought it was funny because you could see the players in the bus sort of looking and laughing about it so we wonder if someone played a prank on him.  And then someone said the bus was about to get rolling so we were escorted out the back door of the arena and just like that it was all over.  I never really had the chance to thank the guy who gave us that opportunity but it was absolutely incredible!  

Zdeno Chara just walked right by us as did Daniel Alfredsson.  Oh well, it didn't matter...it still was an incredible and totally unexpected experience.  

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For me, I met Guy Lafleur twice, once in Montreal when I was very young and when I lived in Calgary.  The most amazing and nicest player i've ever met.

Also it was fun to see Borje Salming, Guy Carbonneau, boom boom Geoffrion and I waved on the stands at Patrick Roy as he was injured that night and, while he was on the ice, I shouted 'Bonjour' to Luc Robitaille and he smiled.

Also met Maurice 'Rocket' Richard, it was ok but think he was a bit grumpy.  

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  • 3 months later...

Zarley Zalapski and Tony Amonte at an autograph signing when I was 3. Right before Zalapski got traded for Ron Francis. 

 

Went to a bar near the Arena right after a game with my Aunt and Uncle. A car with a few Penguins in it pulls up, and as Alex Goligoski is entering, my Aunt yells 
"Hey, Gogo!" followed by "You suck!"

 

Was out on a Saturday night a few years ago after Last Call when I thought I saw Beau Bennett walking in. I shrugged it off and considered it a drunken hallucination until I walked out of the one-person bathroom a few minutes later to see Sidney Crosby waiting for me to finish.

Edited by CamKneely2
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Some Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers players including Jim Kyte and Charlie Huddy.

I personally know Trevor Letowski, Ryan Johnson and the Pyatts. 

I lined a Habs Alumni game here in town and I got them all signed my jersey.  I got a picture with Oleg Petrov

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