Met Tie Domi as a kid. Expected him to be a complete dickhead based on how he was as a player, also wasn’t particularly a fan of him or the Leafs. Was upset after meeting him when I discovered he was actually a very pleasant fella. Liked him a bit more from that point forward.
AnnualMoney6414
I met Brayden Point when he was still a prospect, one of the nicest people I’ve ever interacted with.
Distinct_Mud_2673
A whole lot of kraken players. They do public practices and afterwards some of them stop to give autographs. Joey Daccord and Pierre Edouard Bellemare stood out as the nicest to me
TSNAnnotates
Recently? Steve Eminger. I work at the Hockey Hall of Fame and he was there with his family. He was really kind, took the time to chat with me about his junior hockey days and shook my hand
Natural_Estimate_584
Drank with TooToo in Nashville at Tim Roof. He was going in and out of the cooler handing out beers. He was TRASHED.
ballisticidiot11
I have a photo of Niklas Hjalmarsson holding me as a baby (yes i’m pretty young)
Also didn’t meet, but I mailed a photo to Jeremy Swayman in hopes of an autograph this summer (fingers still crossed) and his house in Arizona is 20 minutes from my grandparents lmao
Sweaty_Elderberry505
Went to a Jets & Ducks game and Yelled at John Gibson right before the Winnipeg offensive zone face off in overtime saying “Gibson your wife is with Perry right now” (Perry was injured at the time) and he looked over in our direction and 30 seconds later Winnipeg scored and won
johnjohnsonsdickhole
Frederic Anderson visited my spa between game 6 and 7 for a massage when he played for the ducks. Big playoff series I wanna say 2016 or 17. I told the masseuse not to fuck this one up. Apparently she fucked it up.
I just remember how big this guy was. Each leg was like a tree trunk, and as he went from locker room to massage room I thought the normal size luxury towel looked like a tiny dish cloth barely covering him. Obviously the robe looked like a women’s petite on him. It was funny. But we lost. Was sad.
Scumdog66
Played a tourney against a team that had Jeff Halpern. He was like 1 year retired
WeGottaGo1979
Ron Francis—snubbed me for an autograph in Boston when I was 12. Thanks Ron!
Embarrassed-List7214
Brian Bouchet used to post on a goalie bulletin board I was on. Cool guy.
CrabbyLobst3r
The one that stands out the most for me was meeting Kyle Okposo after a game while he was still with the Isles. You could wait by the player garage and they’d stop for autographs. I had his jersey on and he signed the 21 on the back. Super nice guy, very humble. He was called for a questionable penalty that night, and someone in the group said « Kyle, why do the refs hate you so much? » and Kyle replied « Cuz they suck! »
RedNekk7
I saw a dude sitting at the top of the stands at a vancouver canadians game. I knew I knew him from somewhere. So I (12 at the time) decided to go talk to him. Conversation went as follows;
Me: “Hi”
“Hello”
Me: “Do you play hockey?”
“..No”
Me: “Do you like hockey?”
“..No”
Me: “…Are you Joe Sakic?”
“…..yes”
I was randomly wearing an avalanche hat that I had won so he signed it for me. I thanked him and walked away. I got about 20ft when another kid asked me if that was Joe Sakic and without thinking I said yes. He was swarmed. His relaxing baseball game ruined.. He was seemingly unnoticed until I opened my yap to the other kid. Still kinda regret that. 😂
DeplorableKurt
Ryan Getzlaf when I was a kid. Lanny McDonald when he was at this thing in Calgary.
bukezilla
I sold Rob Ray furniture. bought a shot for Lindy Ruff. Buffalo is a small town
DrumSetMan19
David Bolland acknowledged me wearing his Blackhawks jersey at warmups at the glass when he came back in a Maple Leafs jersey.
ghostsnstuf
Met Peter Bondra at a public signing. Worse his jersey and had him sign a different one. Took a photo with him and as I started walking away he asked why I didn’t get him to sign his jersey. I said I wear it a lot and wouldn’t want to mess the signature up. He laughed and said to come here so he could sign it. Didn’t even ask for extra money to do so. Really nice guy and enjoyed talking with people!
JonB83
Played in a baseball league where Stamkos was on one of the teams back around 2012-2015. Class act, genuinely humble and low key guy. Incredible athlete who could hit the ball and run like no one else in the league.
krazyellinas23
Brad Marchand. More than once and the guy is a class act.
Main_Goon1
Met Jari Kurri in a charity game in late 90s. Didnt talk much, just asked for an autograph to scrapbook and he signed it and smiled.
ZBSTheKing
Most of the Predators team, they’ve done meet and greats in the past, Fabbros always been my favorite and was always the nicest, met a few Rangers players, and Matt Barzal once who was also very nice
ASwannieSaysWhat
Ran into Danny Heatley in Madison, he was already out of the league or nearing the end of his career. He was shit faced, but I chatted with him as he was not only him, but also wearing the hat of my favorite band, who was playing at Alpine Valley that weekend. Don’t remember much of the conversation, but do remember him hanging on me.
Overall, living in the Madison area, I’ve run into quite a few former Badgers in town… Burish, Elliot, Jack Skille, Ryan Suter
Worked on a group project with Brendan Smith when he was in my Educational Math class as a freshman
RobertMcCheese
I used to play roller hockey and took a bunch of skating classes at the roller hockey rink that Dave Maley ran for a while back in the mid to late 90s.
He’d do skating classes and the like. All in all seemed like a decent guy.
Sasha Lakovic worked there for a while and refereed some games.
He’s one of the biggest pricks I’ve ever met.
Alariken
Henrik Lundqvist, Daniel Alfredsson, Lucas Raymond, Rasmus Dahlin, Simon Edvinsson, John Klingberg and so on. All of them are easy going.
SctBrnNumber1Fan
My great uncle was Carl Brewer, met a lot of old.timer legends at his funeral, Red Kelly let me try on his Stanley Cup Ring he was wearing that day.
Also, met cujo and Wendel Clark at a hockey tournament I played in against their kids. Cujo was a great guy, Clark was an asshole.
And I’ve hung out and had dinner several times with eddy shack back in the day, guy is a riot.
OuetaRL
Dylan Strome is a really great guy, met him near the Caps practice arena and took pictures and chatted.
red_langford
Eddy Shack – installed windows in his house in Toronto. Very nice guy.
Mark Vermette(only played a few games in NHL) – he’s a dick
ThiccB0i24
Connor McDavid after a game. Turns out he’s pretty normal and really cool as long as you treat him like a human being instead of a deity. Had a good, albeit brief, conversation and that was that. Didn’t ask for anything from him because I was so floored that he was standing there.
shmoove_cwiminal
Patrick Marleau is a friend of a friend. We would go out with him sometimes when the Sharks were playing in Vancouver and staying the night. He was always a really nice guy, quiet, chill dude. Sometimes other Sharks would be at the same place we went, so I met Joe Thornton, Bryan Marchment and Teemu Selanne as well. All just came across as friendly, regular dudes. Thornton was the most gregarious.
Brettsucks18
I played with Jimmy Howard for a couple months. Super nice dude.
msp01986
I was on the same bus as Kris Letang for two years in high school, I don’t remember much, but we had some interactions
Itwasinin04
Funny enough, one of my best childhood memories is when Tootoo gave me one of his sticks at Okanagan hockey school. I snuck away at lunch time to watch the pros scrimmage, gave everyone fist bumps as they were coming off the ice and Tootoo said « you want a stick? » And gave me his Bauer One95. Still have it to this day. One of my favorite collection pieces forsure.
joshpalmer30
Casey Middlestadt was a volunteer shooter at this goalie camp I went to when I was like 13-14, had a breakaway challenge at the end of each day and I stopped him the first time only for him to rip a full force slap shot from the hash marks his second time around lol
BoBoBellBingo
I worked with Brad Stuart’s wife at gym in the Bay Area. Brads MIL thought I looked just like him and Brad and I eventually struck up a conversation. I played hockey for a few years and he invited me to a scrimmage/practice. Straight out of make a wish, I had such a blast but Brad didn’t tell anyone I was coming so I was asked multiple times wtf I was doing out there… still cringing for wearing a blackhawks jersey, I’m sure the fans watching in the stands had a lot of questions.. I was not expecting an open practice. Can’t say enough positive things about Brad Stuart, super friendly and down to earth, still have his # in my phone
Naith58
Ryan Hartman. Had seats in Rockford right next to the penalty box. I was eating some SweetTarts jelly beans and gestured to him with the bag, offering him some. He stuck his hand through the gap between the glass and the penalty box and I poured probably six jelly beans into his hand. He ate them and then skated out of the box after serving his two minutes, and immediately scored.
This is my NHL player story and I have told it many times.
onlytruking
Wendel Clark once…a lot shorter than I had imagined. Excellent guy tho…bigs hands from what I remember.
rik1122
Had drinks with Derek Boogaard at a bar in downtown Minneapolis. The guy was massive and had a couple of ladies pawing at him, so I didn’t want to waste too much of his time.
37 Comments
Met Tie Domi as a kid. Expected him to be a complete dickhead based on how he was as a player, also wasn’t particularly a fan of him or the Leafs. Was upset after meeting him when I discovered he was actually a very pleasant fella. Liked him a bit more from that point forward.
I met Brayden Point when he was still a prospect, one of the nicest people I’ve ever interacted with.
A whole lot of kraken players. They do public practices and afterwards some of them stop to give autographs. Joey Daccord and Pierre Edouard Bellemare stood out as the nicest to me
Recently? Steve Eminger. I work at the Hockey Hall of Fame and he was there with his family. He was really kind, took the time to chat with me about his junior hockey days and shook my hand
Drank with TooToo in Nashville at Tim Roof. He was going in and out of the cooler handing out beers. He was TRASHED.
I have a photo of Niklas Hjalmarsson holding me as a baby (yes i’m pretty young)
Also didn’t meet, but I mailed a photo to Jeremy Swayman in hopes of an autograph this summer (fingers still crossed) and his house in Arizona is 20 minutes from my grandparents lmao
Went to a Jets & Ducks game and Yelled at John Gibson right before the Winnipeg offensive zone face off in overtime saying “Gibson your wife is with Perry right now” (Perry was injured at the time) and he looked over in our direction and 30 seconds later Winnipeg scored and won
Frederic Anderson visited my spa between game 6 and 7 for a massage when he played for the ducks. Big playoff series I wanna say 2016 or 17. I told the masseuse not to fuck this one up. Apparently she fucked it up.
I just remember how big this guy was. Each leg was like a tree trunk, and as he went from locker room to massage room I thought the normal size luxury towel looked like a tiny dish cloth barely covering him. Obviously the robe looked like a women’s petite on him. It was funny. But we lost. Was sad.
Played a tourney against a team that had Jeff Halpern. He was like 1 year retired
Ron Francis—snubbed me for an autograph in Boston when I was 12. Thanks Ron!
Brian Bouchet used to post on a goalie bulletin board I was on. Cool guy.
The one that stands out the most for me was meeting Kyle Okposo after a game while he was still with the Isles. You could wait by the player garage and they’d stop for autographs. I had his jersey on and he signed the 21 on the back. Super nice guy, very humble. He was called for a questionable penalty that night, and someone in the group said « Kyle, why do the refs hate you so much? » and Kyle replied « Cuz they suck! »
I saw a dude sitting at the top of the stands at a vancouver canadians game. I knew I knew him from somewhere. So I (12 at the time) decided to go talk to him. Conversation went as follows;
Me: “Hi”
“Hello”
Me: “Do you play hockey?”
“..No”
Me: “Do you like hockey?”
“..No”
Me: “…Are you Joe Sakic?”
“…..yes”
I was randomly wearing an avalanche hat that I had won so he signed it for me. I thanked him and walked away. I got about 20ft when another kid asked me if that was Joe Sakic and without thinking I said yes. He was swarmed. His relaxing baseball game ruined.. He was seemingly unnoticed until I opened my yap to the other kid. Still kinda regret that. 😂
Ryan Getzlaf when I was a kid. Lanny McDonald when he was at this thing in Calgary.
I sold Rob Ray furniture. bought a shot for Lindy Ruff. Buffalo is a small town
David Bolland acknowledged me wearing his Blackhawks jersey at warmups at the glass when he came back in a Maple Leafs jersey.
Met Peter Bondra at a public signing. Worse his jersey and had him sign a different one. Took a photo with him and as I started walking away he asked why I didn’t get him to sign his jersey. I said I wear it a lot and wouldn’t want to mess the signature up. He laughed and said to come here so he could sign it. Didn’t even ask for extra money to do so. Really nice guy and enjoyed talking with people!
Played in a baseball league where Stamkos was on one of the teams back around 2012-2015. Class act, genuinely humble and low key guy. Incredible athlete who could hit the ball and run like no one else in the league.
Brad Marchand. More than once and the guy is a class act.
Met Jari Kurri in a charity game in late 90s. Didnt talk much, just asked for an autograph to scrapbook and he signed it and smiled.
Most of the Predators team, they’ve done meet and greats in the past, Fabbros always been my favorite and was always the nicest, met a few Rangers players, and Matt Barzal once who was also very nice
Ran into Danny Heatley in Madison, he was already out of the league or nearing the end of his career. He was shit faced, but I chatted with him as he was not only him, but also wearing the hat of my favorite band, who was playing at Alpine Valley that weekend. Don’t remember much of the conversation, but do remember him hanging on me.
Overall, living in the Madison area, I’ve run into quite a few former Badgers in town… Burish, Elliot, Jack Skille, Ryan Suter
Worked on a group project with Brendan Smith when he was in my Educational Math class as a freshman
I used to play roller hockey and took a bunch of skating classes at the roller hockey rink that Dave Maley ran for a while back in the mid to late 90s.
He’d do skating classes and the like. All in all seemed like a decent guy.
Sasha Lakovic worked there for a while and refereed some games.
He’s one of the biggest pricks I’ve ever met.
Henrik Lundqvist, Daniel Alfredsson, Lucas Raymond, Rasmus Dahlin, Simon Edvinsson, John Klingberg and so on. All of them are easy going.
My great uncle was Carl Brewer, met a lot of old.timer legends at his funeral, Red Kelly let me try on his Stanley Cup Ring he was wearing that day.
Also, met cujo and Wendel Clark at a hockey tournament I played in against their kids. Cujo was a great guy, Clark was an asshole.
And I’ve hung out and had dinner several times with eddy shack back in the day, guy is a riot.
Dylan Strome is a really great guy, met him near the Caps practice arena and took pictures and chatted.
Eddy Shack – installed windows in his house in Toronto. Very nice guy.
Mark Vermette(only played a few games in NHL) – he’s a dick
Connor McDavid after a game. Turns out he’s pretty normal and really cool as long as you treat him like a human being instead of a deity. Had a good, albeit brief, conversation and that was that. Didn’t ask for anything from him because I was so floored that he was standing there.
Patrick Marleau is a friend of a friend. We would go out with him sometimes when the Sharks were playing in Vancouver and staying the night. He was always a really nice guy, quiet, chill dude. Sometimes other Sharks would be at the same place we went, so I met Joe Thornton, Bryan Marchment and Teemu Selanne as well. All just came across as friendly, regular dudes. Thornton was the most gregarious.
I played with Jimmy Howard for a couple months. Super nice dude.
I was on the same bus as Kris Letang for two years in high school, I don’t remember much, but we had some interactions
Funny enough, one of my best childhood memories is when Tootoo gave me one of his sticks at Okanagan hockey school. I snuck away at lunch time to watch the pros scrimmage, gave everyone fist bumps as they were coming off the ice and Tootoo said « you want a stick? » And gave me his Bauer One95. Still have it to this day. One of my favorite collection pieces forsure.
Casey Middlestadt was a volunteer shooter at this goalie camp I went to when I was like 13-14, had a breakaway challenge at the end of each day and I stopped him the first time only for him to rip a full force slap shot from the hash marks his second time around lol
I worked with Brad Stuart’s wife at gym in the Bay Area. Brads MIL thought I looked just like him and Brad and I eventually struck up a conversation. I played hockey for a few years and he invited me to a scrimmage/practice. Straight out of make a wish, I had such a blast but Brad didn’t tell anyone I was coming so I was asked multiple times wtf I was doing out there… still cringing for wearing a blackhawks jersey, I’m sure the fans watching in the stands had a lot of questions.. I was not expecting an open practice. Can’t say enough positive things about Brad Stuart, super friendly and down to earth, still have his # in my phone
Ryan Hartman. Had seats in Rockford right next to the penalty box. I was eating some SweetTarts jelly beans and gestured to him with the bag, offering him some. He stuck his hand through the gap between the glass and the penalty box and I poured probably six jelly beans into his hand. He ate them and then skated out of the box after serving his two minutes, and immediately scored.
This is my NHL player story and I have told it many times.
Wendel Clark once…a lot shorter than I had imagined. Excellent guy tho…bigs hands from what I remember.
Had drinks with Derek Boogaard at a bar in downtown Minneapolis. The guy was massive and had a couple of ladies pawing at him, so I didn’t want to waste too much of his time.
Sad loss. Opiates are a real bitch.