Have You Met Any NHL Players, Past or Present?

[Chaos Giraffe]

Met Cliff Ronning while working in a customer service job.

Absolute asshole.

 

[H3ckt1k]

I have only seen a couple from afar such as John Tavares in a local grocery store, however Bob Mckenzie once came into my house and said "wakey wakey" when I came upstairs after a long slumber

 

[Winston Butterworth]

Met Cam Neely in a gas station bathroom once.

Kick his ass Seabass

 

[spcastlemagic]

Bumped into Mark Recchi once on Mother’s Day. Saw Vinny Trocheck coming off the ice breaking in some new gear right after he got the extension with Florida on a random summer weekday I decided to go skating.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I've been pretty lucky. My dads best friends at work was best friends with Darryl Sittler. During the 80's I used to go fishing with them quite a bit. Not to mention many others including Clark, Vaive etc. Dan Maloneys son broke my thumb with a clean hit and I was happy he remmebered my name from previous intereactions fishing. he was the coach of the Leafs at the time.
I've been lucky to play with and against many NHLers growing up. My hockey coach played for the LA kings. My best friends uncle is Pierre Pilote and have met him numerous times.
Played in an NHL charity league foundation and got to play with many players including, Pnikarovsky, Steve Thomas, Jim Thompson, Bill Derlego Tony Mc kegney and many more. I had prettyy good chemistry with Alexie Smirnov. lol
The guy that ran the charity league got me involved with golf as well. He called me up one time and said he had a cancellation at a charity event and wanted me to bring a friend and be a foursome with Bobby Baun and his buddy. I couldn't make it but got my cousin to go instead.
GOlfing I met Ron Ellis(numerous times and was also around the rink a lot in the charity league), Vaive, Jim Ralph, Pierre Pilote, Bobby Baun and many others.
Met Chico Resch so many times,.
Ed Olzchek offered me and my buddy a ride from the Complex in Newmarket to the bus station. But we turned it down.
Met many players at maple leaf gardens before and after games.
Slava Fetisov called my house one time. I calle dhim when I was 12 and his wife said he was in Minneapolis and she said to call back. the next day. i called him and he said he was going to send an autographed stick of the team. Then he called a while after and my dad answered and said I wasn't home and that was it. MY dad told me years later that some guy from NJ called me when I told him about it.
Played mens hockey with lots of ex AHLer and the odd fourth liners in Toronto leagues and tourneys. HAwerchuck ahd 30 assists in one game in one tournament.
I have probably met at least 200 NHLers in my lifetime.
Edit. Forgot about Bobby Hull, Bobby Clarke who was probably the nicest and I was in a Devils Jersey in a playoff game in 2000 against Philly.
My cousin is best friends with Doug MAclean and my others cousins husband is besties with Mike Vernon. But never met them.
I watch a lot of YSE AAA minor midget games. BYield MCDAvid etc. Curtis Josephs son was on the team one year and we always sat in one end of the arena near each other. He always just smiled ubntil the one time I was at their game in Toronto up against the glass and came up and said hi like he knew who I was and we watched the game together. Didn't really talk. JUst small talk like nice goal etc.

Super nice guy, Chico.

 

[Demon Eyes]

Met John Chabot and Ted Nolan when I was a kid. Got some autographs of them. Met some Oilers I guess, I was outside Northlands where the team players leave with my buddy who was getting autographs. I mentioned one interaction long ago but the mods deleted it for some reason and never said why. The only other interaction I remember from those oiler games was Yakupov telling my friend that if he sells the jersey he signed, he'll find him. He still owns that jersey.

 

[BobbyShehan]

Haven't read the thread, to be honest. Just wanna add that I've met many NHL guys over the past 40 years and, at worst, they were a little boring... Most of them are either really nice or straight up hilarious. They do talk a bunch against some of their peers though!

 

[syz]

Weirdly I ran into Dave Semenko at the same Boston Pizza a couple of times. Super nice dude.

 

[ORRFForever]

I met 3 NFL players...

David Woodley - kind, nice, died at 44
Reggie Roby - kind, nice, died at 43
Bob Griese - arrogant / dismissive of a young kid hoping for an autograph, alive and kicking

 

[Chainshot]

Bumped into Mark Recchi once on Mother’s Day. Saw Vinny Trocheck coming off the ice breaking in some new gear right after he got the extension with Florida on a random summer weekday I decided to go skating.

Dr. Mark works on Mother's Day? Now that's a GP worth keeping.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

I met 3 NFL players...

David Woodley - kind, nice, died at 44
Reggie Roby - kind, nice, died at 43
Bob Griese - arrogant / dismissive of a young kid hoping for an autograph, alive and kicking

Roby was a beast, such a unique style.

Great clip from his Oilers days, moves pretty good for a big man:

 

[BCNate]

As a kid a buddy of mine was neighbours with Martin Gelina, he was just a normal guy who played ball hockey with us often. Canucks were huge in Vancouver in the mid 90s, so that was super rad.

Met Pat Quinn (rip) while working night audit at a hotel in Whistler, he was sitting outside smoking a cigar. He talked for a while, he was a true gem.

Connor Bedard was practicing at the NSWC this winter while he was injured. My daughter was on the other ice playing game. My son went over to watch before anyone else noticed who he was, he flipped him a puck. He high fived all the kids after their game and seemed like a real humble likeable kid.

I see Trevor linden and Willie Mitchell all the time in whistler, both are awesome.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Met Cliff Ronning while working in a customer service job.

Absolute asshole.

I met his son while I was working in NYC when he was trying out for the Rangers. He was the complete opposite.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

someone will post the "I saw hockey player at the super market" copypasta

Sorry, we're not as cool as you are...Personally, I always enjoy these posts.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Met Wayne Simmonds a bunch of times at a place in Scarborough when he was apart of the LA Kings, nice guy, I was the only one to recognize him.

Tavares, Kessel and Phaneuf golfed regularly at a place I worked during a summer but didn't really say much to them.

Saw Tucker at a mall but he was with his kid, didn't wanna bother him, just kind of gave him the nod and went on with my day.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Not interested.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

So many, been pretty lucky. Bob Gainey, Kirk Muller, John Ferguson, Marcel Dionne, Mark Messier, Guy Carbonneau, Vinnie Damphousse, Darryl Sittler, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, Terry Ryan (Hilarious), Marie-Philippe Poulin, Brad May (Hilarious), Patrice Brisebois, Guy Lafleur, Alain Vigneault, Jacques Martin, Randy Sexton, and quite a few more.

Every one of them was nice. BUT, Darryl Sittler, what a genuine, kind soul.

 

[GAGLine]

The Rangers hold a casino night every year. It's been many years since I attended, but I've been to it three or four times. At one of those events, I won an auction to skate on the Garden ice with Rod Gilbert and had dinner with him (along with my brother and a couple friends).

At another, I won the opportunity to be "GM for a day". That meant a visit to the "Eyebrow" to watch a game. The Eyebrow is what they call the GM's box, at least they used to before the renovations. I don't know if they still call it that now or if it is even still there. My brother and I got to meet Sather and Don Maloney. Messier was there too, because he had a wrist injury at the time. It was right after they traded for Bure. I've played blackjack with Messier as the dealer, talked to Brian Leetch and others.

The tickets have gotten pretty expensive, especially considering I was the only one paying for them, so I stopped going, but it's a great way to meet the players.

 

[Whalers Fan]

We've had two different major junior teams here in Plymouth -- first the Whalers (OHL), and now the US NTDP, and we've had season tickets to each for many years. We've had numerous former players visiting here to watch their kids, or working for the opposing team, scouting, etc. Off the top of my head, I've met Chris Osgood, Kris Draper, Doug Gilmour, Tie Domi, Warren Rychel (told him to watch his language when he screamed "break his f'ing neck" during a fight), Teemu Selanne, and Igor Larionov. We had Steve Yzerman sitting in front of us during a University of Michigan vs. NTDP game, but he was with his wife and daughter, so we didn't want to bother him. Spent an entire game of the 2007 OHL finals between Plymouth and Sudbury sitting next to Eddie Giacomin discussing the game.

This past February I met Buzz Schneider from the USA 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team. He was at our arena for a Miracle on Ice celebration. Very nice man.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

I met Sergei Gonchar a couple times, he's a very quite but a very nice and good guy, not the most talkative person at least he was in the times I met him around the DC area in his early days.

 

[jonlin]

Quite a few actually. Played in the sandbox with Saku Koivu as a kid. His cousin lived next to us and he was often there over the summer. We also faced eachother in soccer as juniors.
In 1997 IIHF tourney in Turku, I sat at a bar in central Turku/Finland and some yankee came sit beside me. He paid with a 500mk bill for a 25mk beer and said "keep the change". I told him waitresses in Finland actually get paid and that the tip was very large. It was Jim Campbell St Louis Blues - He had just arrived in the middle of the tourney and his baggage had been lost in Köln when changing flights. We had a fun time and later went to a Night club where most US and Canadian players were. I also spent the night at their hotel in Naantali. We were out a few nights after that also. They took the tourney as a vacation and we had a great time...

Jimmy was a very nice and kind guy. I obviously didnt pay many drinks thoose days.

Mark Recchi was an asshole. He was very full of himself and treated women like shit.

 

[TS Quint]

A company I worked for brought Gordie Howe in to do a meet and greet for their charity golf tournament. My boss knew I was a big Wings fan and let me make sure he was taken care of for the day.

What a LEGEND! He was very soft spoken at this point but the man knows how to give everyone a small experience. For most people getting a picture with him they seemed little sheepish and looked like they were just trying to run in and out of the picture trying not to bother him. Gordie would hold their handshake a little longer when they tried to leave and said something to each person that would make them smile or laugh. Everyone left with their own personal Gordie Howe quote and a story to tell.

Gordie was traveling with his grandson Travis who I spent most of the day with as Gordie was clearly busy. Travis was a great guy to talk hockey with. He’s a skills coach and worked with a bunch of the top prospects/young players. As a hockey fan it was a lot of fun to hear what he had to say about them.

The Howe’s are great down to earth people and made that day one of my favorites when it comes to sports.

 

[saska sault]

Went to school with Jake Muzzin, Nick Cousins. One was and still is a very down to earth and nice guy, the other was and is a douche. I'll let you guys figure out which is which.

Grew up playing against Jordan Nolan. He was always big for his age and dominated at every level we played together.

 

[BagHead]

I met Brent Burns while he was buying a bike. He was all of 21 or 22 years old at the time, and I was of an age with him. I could tell he didn't really want to be bothered much, but was too kind to say so, so I just got his autograph on my hat, mentioned a thing he did in the playoffs that I loved, and then moved on.

He seemed like a good guy, even outside of interviews. I'm really glad he's had an even better career than I thought he'd have, and I already expected a Norris out of him.

 

[dalewood12]

Went to high school with the Tanev brothers. Good guys from humble backgrounds who completely dusted everyone in shinny.