NHL players you've met

[Jeff 0]

Even the then-coach, Andy Murray, he was definitely a peoples person.

Here's a story relayed to me about Murray:

He walked into the locker room of a local youth team. Out of nowhere, he runs over to the board on the wall and starts drawing up a play for them. :lol: Everyone got a kick out of his enthusiasm.

I have run into Derek Armstrong at several parties for mutual friends. He's a real cool guy, always down to shoot the breeze about anything. Great sense of humor, loves the game of hockey.

Luc Robitaille is great as well. Always smiling, willing to sign an autograph, talk about last night's game, etc

[tsiarls79 0]

Ran into Marty Turco in NYC at the Reebok NHL store. I was wearing a Redwings shirt and was holding a Rangers shirt and mini stick. The guy couldn't be nicer, was late for a broadcast upstairs, was being asked by an assistant to head up, he responded saying he just wants to make sure everyone's done. Got a photo with him, offered his hand in shake and pointed to the stuff I was holding while saying "Wow, lotsa rangers stuff."

[PJaeggi97 0]

Pat LaFontaine- Favorite player growing up. Got to meet him at the Sabres Carnival when they presented the ugly Black/Red/White Jerseys. Was a great guy. Was only about 9 at the time but very nice and got to take a pic with him aswell as Hasek.

Pat Kane- Played with him PeeWee's with West Seneca. Good ole' #19. Was completely stuck up. As he should be, father owned a Jeep dealer in the area.

Claude Vilgrain- Met him in Switzerland when he was my father's teammate. Played in the Q and then later for the Devils until going overseas. Was a great guy and would do anything for you.

Julien Vauclair- Another one of my father's teammates in Europe. He was fairly young in the league and later played a season with the Sens.

[Ovie17 0]

Pat LaFontaine -Played hockey a bunch of times on his backyard rink with my dad's team ( they played each other) and I'm friends with his son who goes to the same High school I go to. He's a Very very very Nice guy

[djinferno 2]

I got o meet many NHL players and I played with a few too

In my Area, I played with Chris Neil, Martin Havlat (too fast), Dan Briere (a beast), Christian Matte (While retired), Stephane Matteau(While retired),Chis Dube (now in europe), Claude Julien (after a qmjhl practice), Mike Ryder (while in QMJHL), Yiry Fishier(while in QMJHL, bigggest shot I ever witnessed), Mike Ribiero (Too much hands), Scott Melamby (During the lockout, at stick time in Atlanta), theres another NHL guy that was there in Atlanta but I cant remember his name... Zedon Konotca or what ever his name is, Patric Lalime, Martin Biron, Derrick Brassard, Todd White, Come to think of it, I played with most of the Ottawa Senators that stay in Ottawa for the summer as they play scrimages almost every morning and will let you play if you ask politely and work your butt off, those guys can play

Now I played in tournaments with many pros but not necessarely at the NHL level...

One thing I learned with most of these guys, hockey is all about work, if you put in work, you can get somewhere...

guys i ran across...

Larry Robinson, Guy Lafleur, Guy Carboneau, Patrick Roy, Maxime Talbot and Marc Andre Fleury (how stinny is that guy) at club 1234 in montreal, Joel Bouchard (now a reporter in the Montreal area), Ray Emery at a club in Ottawa that I wont mention... All the Bruins team like 5 years ago (Joe Thornton was still there) They had just got off the plane from playing a game in Montreal and since its only a 25 minute flight, they dropped into a club we was chillin at, man can Byron Dafoe party, so big too...

Im sure Im forgeting guys because around my way, we get to see nhlers all the time...

[LkptTiger 1]

Pat Kane- Played with him PeeWee's with West Seneca. Good ole' #19. Was completely stuck up. As he should be, father owned a Jeep dealer in the area.

Pat was never too bad growing-up. Even now, he's okay when he's in an element he can be comfortable with. I'm not saying he can't be a bit of a dick sometimes, but he's capable of being a decent human being, contrary to popular belief.

His father, however, is a huge doucher.

[skyscrape 5]

This is not targeted at any comments on here and I am not making excuses for the kid. But at 21 if I had people all over the US calling me a d bag I probably wouldn't be the most friendly person either. No excuse, but it is similar to when a girl breaks a nice guys heart and turns him into a player...

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

Never really met an NHL player before except for autograph signings at a mall or something, so those don't count. But today I went to the Islanders draft party and got VIP passes though a friend who interns for the team. So we got to pretty much hang out with Tavares, Moulson and Gillies in a seperate room. We talked about the teams direction, who they wanted at the num. 5 spot in the draft, what its like to play as yourself in NHL10. It was cool because Tavares and Moulson were pretty much mine and my friends age so they were like any other kid you'd meet at a bar or a hockey game. Amazing experience and amazing people.

[krwwc6 0]

Went to wayne gretzkys restaurant in toronto with my team a bit ago. We asked our waitress how often wayne comes in, she said he rarely comes in, but his father, walter, comes in a lot during the hockey season, and maybe once a year during the summer. We lucked out, and about 10 minutes after we asked that question, he walked in to eat dinner. As he waited for his meal he walked around and signed autographs (place wasnt very crowded). He then came to our table, with 7-8 guys, and found out we were from out of town. He sat down and talked to us about random sh*t for a good 45 minutes. It was great.

After talking we got up for pictures in front of a gretzky display at the front of the restaurant. He was telling the hostess exactly where to stand as we took about 20 pictures. . . then he told her to move a little and take them from another angle. After all the pictures he sat back down and talked with us again. He was just a down to earth guy, talked our ears off. Amazing experience.

[lappin27 0]

when i was younger i took a road trip the year the avs won the cup. I had a Patrick Roy jersey and Steve Reinpreicht took me around the rink and got all the players to sign my jersey. The only one who didn't sign it was Patrick Roy.

[RussianDangler15 0]

Met Ron Dugay a few times at rangers season ticket holder events, bastard cheated against an 12 year old and his bald uncle at bubble hockey. ;)

Met a few others at similar events the two that stick out though was naslund who was playing air hockey with kids and graves who liked my shannahan jersey (this was after we didn't resign him) and just chillen and chatted me up a bit asking me if and what i play just a really nice guy

[Hradsky 1]

when i was younger i took a road trip the year the avs won the cup. I had a Patrick Roy jersey and Steve Reinpreicht took me around the rink and got all the players to sign my jersey. The only one who didn't sign it was Patrick Roy.

He probably figured that his name is already on the jersey.

[shotty 7]

maybe he was in the process of getting his 2nd Stanley cup ring fitted for his ear.

[nittanypucker 1]

I've been pretty lucky because I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of players over the years. I met Dave Poulin, former Flyer captain along with the rest of the 87 Stanley Cup team. All very nice. I have met Mike Emerick and he was super nice and very talkative. Two of the nicest guys I've met were Eric Lindros who was very friendly, talkative and approachable and Luc Robitaille. Luc (and the Kings) were staying in the same hotel as us and I happened to be walking down the hallway when he opened his door, in his underwear for some reason. Even in that embarrassing situation, he was still a very cool guy.

[hyprlte 0]

Got to train one summer with Anders Eriksson. Great guy - extremely nice to speak with and really funny. That summer my game jumped up 100% due to his coaching and just listening to his advice. The guy also donated $15,000 to the rink so it could be built - can't say enough good things about him.

[starsfan71 9]

Ran into Marty Turco in NYC at the Reebok NHL store. I was wearing a Redwings shirt and was holding a Rangers shirt and mini stick. The guy couldn't be nicer, was late for a broadcast upstairs, was being asked by an assistant to head up, he responded saying he just wants to make sure everyone's done. Got a photo with him, offered his hand in shake and pointed to the stuff I was holding while saying "Wow, lotsa rangers stuff."

Marty is a great guy he is awesome at the practices one time they practice on the ice right after we had a practice and he kept shooting pucks at us and by the end he threw a few over the glass for us. Just an awesome guy.

[maxamillion 3]

At work the other day Colby Cohen came in and we chatted for a bit. I was the only person in there that knew who the hell he even was I think even though he's a local kid. I told him that BU Miami game for the national title was the best game i've ever watched. he was a nice enough guy, maybe a little weirded out but he was still cool haha.

[Scotty 8]

Chris Pronger - Met him at a charity softball game. Pleasant, but comes across as slightly arrogant.

Geoff Courtnall - Very nice and polite.

David Backes - Comes into where I work probably once a month. Very down-to-Earth and willing to talk about whatever.

Keith Tkachuk - I haven't personally met him, but my dad's custom homebuilding company built his house here in St. Louis. Dad's pretty much the family's go-to guy in terms of if they want something done inside the house (furniture, paint, etc all the way to installing extra insulation in the basement so he can't hear his kids playing hockey under his office). Dad says that of all the dozens and dozens of times he's tried to be nice to Keith, he simply always acts pissed off, won't talk to anyone, and will sit in a chair and do nothing. You pretty much have to drag a response out of him and he's kind of an A-hole.

Al MacInnis - Has a very "wise" feel to him, kind, and willing to take pics/sign whatever.

[dsjunior1388 81]

Met Gordie Howe the other day at the end of a camp at the rink. He seemed legitimately pleased to meet all the kids and joke around with them. Either he loves meeting the little hockey players or he just sold it well, either way, had a great demeanor for someone who had to shake the sticky hands of children for about 3 hours.

[markstmartin89 0]

Tony Hrkac, played for Milwaukee Admirals for a while when it was the IHL, then he moved up to the Dallas Stars to finish his career. Classy guy, very nice, and tall.

Joe Sakic for about a minute, he was very nice, great spirit, and he signed a jersey for me and gave it to me.

[djinferno 2]

i met claude giroux and daniel briere 2 weeks ago, they where at there hockey clinic in Gatineau, dam these 2 are small, giroux is tinny

[Big Jim 1]

Out here in Omaha they run a "fantasy" camp during the summer for adults. It's just a normal hockey camp, although our coach is Dave Wilkie, former NHLer. For our last meet we play a scrimmage and they try to bring in some D1 players from UNO and NHLers if possible. This was my first year. Jed Ortmeyer refed the game as he said he pulled his back a couple days ago. Dan Ellis was there however and it was truly incredible to play with a goalie of his caliber. Truly awesome experience. After our game they gave us a chance to take some breakaways on him. I had done a little research the night before so I had a plan going in to go five hole.. lol. I don't normally plan out my breaks but I just wanted to get him moving laterally and go 5 hole. It worked! It's really cool to know that I scored on an NHL goalie, but I have to say he absolutely robbed me a couple times which was in a way even cooler. His athletic ability was superb and a thrill to watch.

[Fisticuffs 0]

Bobby Hull we spent the most time with. He agreed to be the guest of honor at the grand opening of a local rink. They had a cocktail party the night before, he showed up around 7:00... and stuck around chatting hockey and sipping glasses of wine until 3:00 in the morning. He signed a couple things for me, and my brother has a picture wearing Bobby's Stanley Cup ring, which is beyond cool.

Billy Smith I've met a few times. Very nice guy.

Nick Backstrom is about as nice a guy as you could ever meet. He's kind of interesting, because he's an interesting mix of very mature, and a kid. He's also much bigger than I imagined.

I've met many more over the years, but mostly just for a few minutes in passing, or while they were playing in the AHL/IHL before making it to the big show.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Tony Hrkac, played for Milwaukee Admirals for a while when it was the IHL, then he moved up to the Dallas Stars to finish his career. Classy guy, very nice, and tall.

Joe Sakic for about a minute, he was very nice, great spirit, and he signed a jersey for me and gave it to me.

Hrkac didn't go to Dallas to finish his career - he played for 3 NHL teams after DAL, total of almost 800 games in the NHL. Matter of fact, he played in the AHL last year.

[dumbpolak9 1]

i must say Bobby Holik, Travis Zajac, Zack Parise, and Andy Greene are the guys to go to to talk to on the devils