Players are boring in large part BECAUSE of the NHL. It's not a league with a dynamic and interesting marketing strategy. It has long suppressed interesting and fun personalities in favor of a stoic, good 'ol hardworking Canadian boy archetype, and anybody who deviates from that gets hammered twice as hard during any adversity.
That's overcome-able if there's any positive push from the league on that stuff, but the NHL, in an effort to broaden appeal went very sanitized during the late 90s and early aughts and never really recovered. If there's a criticism of Bettman as a commissioner, it's that he hasn't pushed back on the old guard enough to make the leagues outreach more dynamic. Look at how the NBA has evolved, and it's the fastest growing league of the big 4 because of it.
Every kid growing up playing hockey knows all of this, because it's been the case for decades, so they all regulate their behavior accordingly from a surprisingly early age if they're in the NHL pipeline. Yeah maybe the players aren't naturally electric on the mic, but that doesn't mean they can't be fun and marketable, just means the league needs to do more work to make them shine.
League should get Jack out there and actually let the boy cook in interviews. Get some friendly reporters out there to lob some quip-able softballs, etc etc.