A Cup of Coffee with One Person in this Organization

[Roughneck]

Probably Mark DePasquale or Corey Osmak. Guys who are always in the thick of it but aren’t used to being political and polished. I think you could get some great stories from them.

[Erick Estrada]

Button would be a good one as he's been around for several regime changes and probably has a lot of interesting stories on current and past GM's.

[Lanny_McDonald]

John Bean. Would love half an hour to get some insight into the management philosophy of the organization and who is running the show.

[GioforPM]

Lucic, as long as he’s being real frank. Played for 5 teams, including cup winners, and teams that sucked balls. Coached by Julien, Sutter, McLellan, Peters, Ward (and had Ward as an assistant so he could assess him even better). Played with the very elite guys at what they do: McDavid for scoring, Bergeron for two-way, Chara, Doughty, Kopitar, Marchand.

He’s in a position to give a pretty honest assessment of the team. Not sure he does in real life, being a good guy who likes to get along.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Gallick

I mean, it has to be Craig Conroy. That's the easiest, most entertaining conversation you could imagine. Just get him going on literally anything and sit back and enjoy your coffee.

Yup and way more likely to spill the beans on interesting trade/free agency rumors than any other the other members of the leadership team.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

There have been some wild stories about Russia told on Spittin Chiclets too

Dave King's book is fantastic to get insight into life in the hockey world in Russia.

[Freeway]

Some of the best people to chat with in the organization have already been mentioned: Chris Snow, Tod Button, Brian McGrattan and Craig Conroy.


A lot of their European and college scouts have some good stories, too. Ray Edwards, currently an assistant coach, has had a fascinating path to the NHL.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by icarus

You could also do this with Gio. They might have different perspectives though.

Yeah, that and Gio is 13 years ago. It would be interesting to see the different perspectives. For Nestorov I would guess he could have made more in the KHL than he'll make in the NHL this year, yet he came back.

From my soap box it looks like Putin is really throwing his weight around these days moreso than 13 years ago. But it might be exactly the same, which in a way would be fascinating too.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Sandman

A player wrote an article for the Athletic (I think), and described how grim it was to play in Russia-horrible airplanes,dirty players, food,etc. One game, he took a hit that left him concussed, and ruptured his spleen. A few minutes later, on his way back to the dressing room, he collapsed. When he woke up, he was naked on the slab, IN THE MORGUE. They already called his wife in Canada to notify her. Yikes.

I think it was Lecavalier who signed there during the 04-05 Lockout, and had a comment about they aren't kidding when they say bring your own Toilet seat. The Hotels don't have Toilet seats type of thing.

It's easy for me to say no amount of money could make me play in Russia when I'm not looking at a 700k US difference in salary. But I think I'd be willing to play for a lot less money to do it in say Switzerland where I had heard it's a great life style for the players.