Ever skate and play with an NHLer?

[DarkStar50 679]

The equipment thread about if you were in the show, what gear would you wear got me thinking about this subject. How many guys have ever had the chance to play with/against NHLers?

I have done it twice. The first time was a charity game against the Rangers alumni in 93. The Rangers alumni were about 1 year gone from being on the varsity! We skated at West Point against Pierre Larouche, Ron Greschner, Andre Dore, Nick Fotiu, George McPhee, Mike Backman, and Rod Gilbert. Gilles Villemure was in nets. These guys still had the competitive fire in the belly and were not going to allow anyone to make them look silly. I, somehow, managed to carry the puck through center ice over the blue line. I don't remember who it was but one of the Rangers hacked the *% out of me and I drew a penalty. There was no chance in hell I could score on Gilles Villemure even if he wasn't wearing pads, anyway! Later, I was chasing McPhee in my defensive corner. I slashed his stick out of his hands and quickly said hey , I'm sorry. He says its ok but I said no I'm really sorry! I didn't want him dirtbagging me later. The final touch was when they won a face-off in their zone back to Greschner. He just stared me down at the point. I didn't move and Pierre Larouche was "C ya" taking a home run pass for a breakaway. The game was fun. Those guys could still get serious quickly.

The other time was when Peter Stastny was in NJ. He was in semi-retirement but still skating locally with guys in pick-up. He would pick better groups to play with. I'll never forget the night I skated with him. He was giving me a pass from his defensive blue line to me at center ice. I would swear by the time I skated to the attacking blue line he was skating by me! He was pretty smooth on his skates. And also a great guy on and off the ice with the local guys.

[Gongshow11 1]

pierre marc bouchard 2 summers ago, pierre alexandre parenteau, jason doig, joey rullier.

hey darkstar lol. "great tilt here but im gonna call this one a draw cuz fotiu is my buddy"

-cherry

[#94 3]

I used to skate with the Flyers during the summer...

So, basically, all of the Flyers players from 2002-2004.

[rausch27 1]

blake and glen wesley and mike hartman

[mack 44]

Gomez, Ty Jones, Pyatt and Conklin. A few others and some more in our beer leagues.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

pierre marc bouchard 2 summers ago, pierre alexandre parenteau, jason doig, joey rullier.

hey darkstar lol. "great tilt here but im gonna call this one a draw cuz fotiu is my buddy"

-cherry

obviously if PM Bouchard is somewhere, parenteau will be with him. B)

[Dangles 0]

Eric Brewer, Dan Hamhuis, Zdeno Chara

[twiztidwrista10 3]

Only Jed Ortmeyer for right now.

[JR Boucicaut 3801]

Darcy Hordichuk, Nikita Alexeev, Herbie Vasiljevs, Jarrod Skalde

[whbd18 0]

Does AHL Count,if so My team practiced with the New Haven Beast,when I was younger.And 2 summers ago I got to skate for 20 min in a Wolfpack practice with a couple kids on my AAA team.I got a practically brand new yellow synergy grip for free ,I forgot who the player was though.

[Jason Harris 31]

Derek Armstrong, Stephane Yelle, Ken Klee and Brad Somebody from the 2004 Avs (I'm drawing a blank here.)

[Chadd 916]

Derek Armstrong, Stephane Yelle, Ken Klee and Brad Somebody from the 2004 Avs (I'm drawing a blank here.)

Larsen, he played here in Hershey as well.

[Jason Harris 31]

Darn, I just found it on Google! :P

[Chadd 916]

Darn, I just found it on Google! :P

A lot of those guys played for Hartley here.

[SR27 0]

Vin Damphousse, Ken Hodge Jr., Jeff Lazaro, Jon Morris were NHL´ers I praticed with. There were a handful of others that played a couple of games but were mainly AHL´ers. NHL´er I played against were Sergei Samsonov and Herberts Vasilievs, though they were still 3 or 4 years away from the NHL at the time.

[JR Boucicaut 3801]

Vin Damphousse, Ken Hodge Jr., Jeff Lazaro, Jon Morris were NHL´ers I praticed with. There were a handful of others that played a couple of games but were mainly AHL´ers. NHL´er I played against were Sergei Samsonov and Herberts Vasilievs, though they were still 3 or 4 years away from the NHL at the time.

Herbie spends his summers in Orlando as he used to play there. Good guy.

[SR27 0]

He owned us. I also played ball hockey against his brother Roberts until last year. Not as good as him but still a good player and a nice, quiet guy.

[JGraz15 53]

Bob Corkum, Deron Quint, Tyler Wright

[Jim A 4]

I've been pretty lucky throughout in these situations..not sure if Dark Star remembers but a place in the Catskills had a day or 2 in the early 80's where you could skate with Gretz and some other NHL'ers..(it ended when someone stole Barasso's prototype goal pads (those Aeroflex ones)..he and Mario were there in '84 ....you had like 15 min on the ice...but still..15 minutes

mostly I've skated with guys like glenn anderson, shanahan, bruce driver, kasatonov, starikov, Stastny (around the same time as Dark Star before he hooked up with STL I think) and the usual group of guys who were up and down for a number of years along with a number of the OLD Rangers ie. Stemkowski, Espo, Dugay, Gresch,etc who used to host some clinics at the rink

[Smith 0]

Bob Corkum, Deron Quint, Tyler Wright

Ever play with Rob Shrinner, J.D., Or Pat Murphy.? Shrinner has a drop in that I think has mostly nhl's in it. Pusher, OSU coach (can't think of his name) Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre played over the summer in B league. I played with most of them.

[Jason 65]

Paul Kariya when he was with the University of Maine and I was only 10 at the time. We had some other former NHL players at this camp and AHLers and Kariya would burn those guys like nobody's business. I've been to his house and seen his Hobie Baker award and Olympic medals too. I went to school with and played against his brother Martin. Steve used to ref my games and I've played pick-up with him too. Great guys. Very hard working.

Oh yeah, I also skated with Cliff Ronning's little son the other week at a stick and puck. Does that count? :lol: It was pretty weird being in the dressing room with him. He wasn't signed with anyone and here he was putting his kids equipment on. I never said a word to him. I didn't want to bother him. I guess he's a regular hockey dad now. He never took to the ice either (probably to avoid being bothered). He had someone else working with his son. One thing I remember thinking was man is this guy small. I can't believe he had such a great career with that body!

[awall 0]

I had the chance to but didn't because I was just learning to skate at the time.

I could have skated with Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, Aaron Downey, Bill Guerin, Marty Turco, Pierre Turgeon, and a few others.

I still kick myself for not doing it anyway. At least I went up there and said hi and got some pictures.

I have skated with and chatted with some of the Stars Ice Girls, they were a lot better looking than the guys were. :P

[kovy2797 0]

I used to work at the Pens summer camps and ended up skating and messing around with some of the older Pens like Phil Bourque, Kevin Stevens, Ken Wregget, Joey Mullen, Grant Jennings, Lemieux, along with some of the newer Pens like Orpik, Malone, Fleury, and Chiodo...all in all, a pretty good time.

[Bruin88 0]

matt keith and gary nyland(him and my dad were asked to play dub in portland but my dad didnt wanna leave home ,gary did ,gary went on to play in the nhl)

[jibby93 0]

Martin St.Louis, Steve Begin and Rico Fata when they played for the AHL