Nicest and rudest NHLers you've met

[EYE_Overstand]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I've known plenty of D-bag hockey guys, especially in school. Those are the ones that rarely make it past juniors.

agreed! a family friend had a son who was drafted to some junior team for defence and had the WORST ATTITUDE. "gods gift to women" etc etc… all that but at the end of the day… i never saw him with a girl and his marks were straight poop.

he blew his knee hitting the boards awkwardly and now i see him DT and he rolls around with a bunch of other meat/ roid heads. nothings changed

[mikeecho]

Originally Posted by Russic

My brother in law's best friend growing up was Adam deadmarsh so I got to hang out with him at the wedding (he was the best man). Seemed like a really nice guy.

I've heard from several sources that teemu selane is an insanely nice guy.

Ran into iggy once. He said hi to me. I was too heterosexually dazed to say anything to him though.

Sold dean mccammond weed killer once, he was cool.

Never had a bad experience with a hockey player. Heard plenty of stories about neon dion but nothing first-hand.

I though you sold Deam McCammond some killer weed at first read!!

[mikeecho]

The Good
Lanny - I've been out with him on a few occasions. The guy gets interrupted every five minutes by someone who wants to say hi or buy him a beer. He's always top notch and makes time for everyone as much as possible.

Paul Fenton - He lived beside my friend. He'd pay us in hockey sticks to shovel his driveway. The sticks were these awesome pro stock Titans with a wicked heel curve. I'd head over there with a shovel if it even looked like it might snow! He'd come out and play ball hockey with us from time to time as well.

Teemu Selanne - met him many times. pretty sure he's right up there for greatest guy ever! Not many people are genuinely nicer than him.

Keith Tkachuk - I've heard he could be a real jerk in his earlier years. He dated a someone I knew for a while and he was always pretty cool.

Esa Tikkanen - I met him in Winnipeg at the "Big A" back in the late 90's when he was with the Blues. They played an exhibition game against the Jets and headed to the bar. The rookies bought 50-60 beer that the bartender lined up on the bar for them to drink. Esa stood by the stash of beers by himself and proceeded to plow through 10 of them in 20 minutes. 2-3 sips maximum per beer. He was pretty jovial standing by himself shaking the odd hand and posing for some pictures.

Craig Simpson - I had lunch with him one day for business. He was tremendous to speak with. Gave all kinds of insight into their miracle run in 06 as a coach with the Oilers. Also shared many amazing Gretzky stories as well as stories about being a rookie with the Penguins on a team with a losing culture and being traded to the Oilers who at the time were nothing but winners in terms of how they treated their players and how the players treated their responsibility to the team and the community. Something the Oilers of today could learn a lot from.

Dan Cleary - I used to live in the same apartment complex as him in Edmonton. I used to razz him a lot about if he'd ever score a goal. Eventually he got a game winner on HNIC and never let me hear the end of it!

The Bad
Mike Krushelnyski - Could also go under drunkest. In his mind, he's pretty sure that he's a close second behind Gretzky as the greatest hockey player of all time. He told me that the Flames were gonna fire Sutter and hire Hartley... and that Hartley was going to hire him as an assistant coach. Guess that didn't pan out. He'll also go out of his way to tell anyone and everyone that Scotty Bowman is a c--t. Supposedly Bowman screwed him over in Detroit when he was his assistant.

[Sandman]

Kind of a second-hand story here......
I have a close friend who has a high-up position in a well known multi-national company, and every year in the summer this company puts on a big golf event somewhere in BC that alot of celebrities attend, including several NHLers. In the evenings there are several social events that involve an open bar. Its hard to get a good story out of this guy because he knows very little about hockey, and probably shouldn't be telling stories about these things, but one time he told me about the night he was able to mingle with several players at the bar...
He remembered Jordin Tootoo, because he was really cool with everyone and chatted up my friend most of the night, but he said the two of them were making fun of this "huge gorilla type guy with a big head and massive hands" who was drunk out of his mind and acting like an ass, even throwing up beside the bar. I prompted him to remember the guys name, but he couldn't remember as he's not a hockey fan, so i asked if he knew what team this guy played for and he said the Bruins. Now i have to mention that i'm a big Milan Lucic fan.
I knew instantly who he was talking about-i said,"was his name Lucic?" and he instantly responded,"THATS IT!" Those were the only two names he could remember.

[Badger Bob]

Have to say that all of the encounters have been positive. That list includes Floyd Smith (former Sabres coach), Guy Lafleur, Rick Martin, Pat Lafontaine, Scotty Bowman and Jean Beliveau. Mike Robataille is a personal favorite though, because of a more direct connection. He'd been a member of my gym, and always spoke and shared stories. Very interesting man.