The nicest guys in the NHL.

zar

Bleed Blue
Oct 9, 2010
7,537
7,603
Edmonton AB
Wayne Gretzky. Spoke with him twice in my life.

Once was early in his career… my dad and I were gassing up at the Mohawk gas station right near Northlands Coliseum in -20°C (-4°F) weather… my dad was known to be a “conversationalist”… Gretzky talked to us for at least 5 minutes while freezing his balls off… well, to be honest, he actually did more listening than talking. 🤣 To this day, I blame my dad for Wayne leaving us in ‘88 because he was terrified he would run into my dad on a cold dark day in Edmonton.

Another time was after his playing career, in a more social setting, where he not only just said “hi”, he actually asked questions and we had about a 3 minute chat about hockey and the Oilers.

Really nice guy.
 

ZegrassyKnoll

Registered User
Dec 2, 2016
835
1,396
Wayne Gretzky. Spoke with him twice in my life.

Once was early in his career… my dad and I were gassing up at the Mohawk gas station right near Northlands Coliseum in -20°C (-4°F) weather… my dad was known to be a “conversationalist”… Gretzky talked to us for at least 5 minutes while freezing his balls off… well, to be honest, he actually did more listening than talking. 🤣 To this day, I blame my dad for Wayne leaving us in ‘88 because he was terrified he would run into my dad on a cold dark day in Edmonton.

Another time was after his playing career, in a more social setting, where he not only just said “hi”, he actually asked questions and we had about a 3 minute chat about hockey and the Oilers.

Really nice guy.
Anybody who promotes gambling as much as he does isn’t a really nice guy.
 

SwissLeaf

Registered User
Feb 6, 2012
1,444
634
Seconded on Josi, I havent met the others outside of a quick picture with. But Josi i've met a bunch of times and he's been nice everytime, including talking to my ex and I for ten minutes when we ran into him at the team store in Nashville.
I know a few who are playing soccer with Timo in the summer. According to them he's very down to earth and very funny. Niederreiter is often at Swiss wrestling events. People who attend these events are good people. :D ;)
 
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Alicat

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jul 26, 2005
90,081
103,109
Norman, OK
David Krejci. Hands down one of the nicest and funniest Bruins player I've ever met. Super dry sense of humor and always asked how you were.

I was lucky to meet the majority of the 2011 Bruins, some more than once and they were all great guys. Down to earth and more focused on talking to me/other fans before signing or taking a photo.
 

3074326

Registered User
Apr 9, 2009
11,797
11,448
USA
James Wizniewski is awesome, I told him he was one of my favorite players after making an oral sex gesture at Sean Avery and he slapped my on the back so hard in laughter that I probably had a hand print. Met a bunch of former CBJ players that night (Johansen, Atkinson, Comeau, Dubinsky, and others). They were all nice.
 

RustyCat

Registered homie
Sponsor
Dec 29, 2014
2,726
3,672
Winnipeg

Dickie Dunn

Registered User
Jan 4, 2016
3,132
1,565
Minneapolis
I’ve mentioned it on here before but I took a summer finance course in college to get done a semester early. Brian Bellows was working on his degree and sat behind me. Really cool guy and pretty damn smart too. Invited some of us to hang out. Good dude.
 

Hasbro

Family Friend
Sponsor
Apr 1, 2004
53,369
17,661
South Rectangle
Never heard a bad word about Peter McNabb and he was always willing to talk hockey.

That Rangers fan he fought in the shoe incident would probably tell you what a nice guy he was.
 

Chainshot

Give 'em Enough Rope
Sponsor
Feb 28, 2002
157,245
112,233
Tarnation
I've had some very positive interactions with a couple of guys over the years. Kevin Dineen was so surprised that I recognized him and immediately asked after his dad after Bill's heart attack that he got me comp seats at center ice for a Hurricane game against the Rangers. I bumped into Rick Martin one night in a local watering hole where I was meeting a friend before a game in Buffalo. When I walked up to my friend, there was a shot and a pint on the bar waiting for me and then Rico turned around to shake hands with me - my friend had let on that I was always a big fan.

This may surprise some people but my interactions with Dale Hunter around junior events like the Top Prospects Game or at a couple of training camps and the draft in Toronto in 2002 was gracious, patient and chatty. I know his on-ice rep - I even mentioned that based on history, he was the biggest villain of my hockey viewing in the '80's, though I had already thanked him and Mark for their time and been chatting with them for a while.
 

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