RW Rocco Grimaldi - US NTDP, USHL (2011, 33rd overall, Florida) -religion factor

[SB164]

The hypocrisy is mind bottling.

Its bottling my mind.

Yeah, it's like this Grimaldi kid is just being made into an escape goat.

 

[mike14]

I had him pegged as a late 2nd/early 3rd so I'm not surprised. Someone is certainly going to take him, even if just for his shot.

As for the religious stuff, as many have said, there's nothing wrong with being religious (full disclosure, I'm not) and I can't see it having any effect on a GMs thinking with regards to a player.
He does come off as 'preachy' via twitter (not a great source I know) which may start to raise some flags. I would love to have sat in on some of his interviews to get a better picture.

He certainly has the work ethic to make the NHL, will be very interesting to see how he pans out.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

You can't compare Reggie White, Pat Tillman, Tebow, etc. (all super religious NFL guys) to NHL players because the demographics are very different. I'd be willing to bet that 80 - 90% of NFL players are religious whereas I bet the number for NHL is a lot lower.

But who really knows for sure

Pat Tillman was an atheist.

 

[babblemoth]

What a crock.

Many people here seem to be overlooking the fact that he was asked about his religion. Perhaps interviewers should lay off singling out people who are going to give an honest answer to a personal question, and then we can continue to think everyone is fine and dandy.

Conviction can be a very good thing and if it carries over into his hockey then that's also a bonus. Nothing that he said in that interview or that I seen on his twitter can really be considered "imposing". I am not a religious person myself, and I'm not going to argue about "good-old values", but is it such a crime that a player happens to post brief religious verses on his own twitter. It is not a team board or anything, it is his own personal avenue of communication. Let it be. Secular or religious, stupidity and conflict will always go together; any player you draft can cause issues by just being a flat-out ass-wipe.

 

[Howard Beale]

James Reimer has a Bible verse on the back of his mask. It's clearly visible, and it has been mentioned in a few articles.

Does this mean that he is likely to be a issue in the dressing room?

According to your logic, it does.

According to reality, he is one of the most respected players in the room.

No, but according to my logic it could possibly be an issue if he makes a big fuss about his religious views to his teammates.

He also wrote this Twitter message:

I'm here at the draft. Thank u Lord for always being with me. You guys need to check out the tie I'm wearing tonight. Its awesome #NHLDraft

It's not like he just happened to wear that tie, he wants to bring attention to it (and thus his religious views), hence why it could be a concern.

But regardless, none of us know if his religious views will be an issue with teammates, it's entirely possible the issue has been overblown, so we can just hope for the best for him. He does seem like a nice kid after all.

And for those naming random Christians around the NHL, I don't think anybody is saying he'll create a rift simply because he's religious. It's more the fact that he might make a bigger deal about it than other Christians in the league, because of how devout he is. Not all Christians have the same views, or are as serious about it.

BTW, out of curiosity, does anyone know what church he is a part of?

 

[JackHughes86]

why are you guys making fun of him because hes religious ?

 

[UkraineTrain]

He is not Rocco Siffredi

 

[NuxFan09]

The fear isnt on-ice, its that his team-mates won't accept him and that he will be shunned in the locker room and/or piss off his team-mates.

What a ****ed up world we live in then. I really, really hope that his religion is not the reason teams passed on him in the 1st round, although we'll never know. It would be just sad if true.

 

[8spokesontheB]

Wow, the Church of the Militant Atheist is out in full regalia for this thread!

I don't think any GM's concern is what he would bring to a locker room, so much as how the locker room may affect his game, that is to say, may take him off his game. I'm pretty sure NHL locker rooms aren't going to change in the year 2011 because a player is particularly staunch in his religious beliefs, however, an impressionable young man who feels he is at odds with his surroundings may be detrimentally affected psychologically, and his on-ice performance could suffer.

 

[jigsaw99]

face it... its his 5'6 height that made scouts pass him up in the first round.... not because of his beliefs.

 

[XX]

Apparently Shane Doan on the Coyotes is religious but you would never know. He keeps it to himself. I think if Grimaldi goes to a team with strong leadership and not a bad room (Canucks) then he will be successful so long as he keeps his religion to himself. If he wants to promote it to his fans and his fans LIKE it, who cares?

 

[BruinsPortugal]

Tim Thomas is pretty religious and just thanked god for the vezina trophy live on tv, guess what? he seems to be doing pretty well.

He's slipping because he is 5'6, no surprise here.

 

[unknown33]

Am I the only one who thinks he has a perfect Pornstar name?

 

[MM425]

It's not like he just happened to wear that tie, he wants to bring attention to it (and thus his religious views), hence why it could be a concern.

But regardless, none of us know if his religious views will be an issue with teammates, it's entirely possible the issue has been overblown, so we can just hope for the best for him. He does seem like a nice kid after all.

And for those naming random Christians around the NHL, I don't think anybody is saying he'll create a rift simply because he's religious. It's more the fact that he might make a bigger deal about it than other Christians in the league, because of how devout he is. Not all Christians have the same views, or are as serious about it.

BTW, out of curiosity, does anyone know what church he is a part of?

I personally am not a fan of the "wear your religion on your sleeve" types out there. I find them very irritating. Just my opinion.

With that being said, it should in no way shape or form affect the way he's looked at as a player or teammate. That is where being professional comes into play.

Would he report to the Devils?

OK I have to admit I LOLed here.

 

[MS]

The issue is not that he's religious. Plenty of great players are religious.

The issue is that he comes across as really weird dude and a fanatical bible-thumper.

If his position was 'Yes, I'm religious - it's a personal choice and it gives me strength, but my beliefs aren't really for public consumption', nobody would care. In fact, it would probably work in his favour as he'd probably come across as a grounded kid who wasn't likely to have character issues later on.

But instead the whole way he comes across is really strange. It's like a big show. And a big distraction.

_________

Just to take it away from religion as it's obviously polarizing:

The reaction would be no different if he was acting/talking/tweeting the same way about politics (either right or left wing).

If he was tweeting on a daily basis about his political views, wearing ties on the subject to the draft and trying to draw attention to it, talking about converting teammates to his political beliefs and how they were making mistakes if they voted the wrong way, would people have concerns about it? Of course they would.

 

[Bjorn Le]

9 pages of religous debate ugh. I said it earlier, religion isn't a problem, people that said he fell because of size issues, they're right.

No one remembers the recent draft shows when they talked about Grimaldi? They said he had GLOWING interviews, some of the best, that really showed how devouted he was to hockey and how nice a person he was. Now I don't even like him as a player that much and think he's a bit overrated, but please, he did not fall because of religious reasons, and teams could care less what he said in an interview to TSN, which wasn't that negative.

 

[jigsaw99]

He's going have fun partying it up in Florida... or not.

 

[Grasshopperking]

He's going have fun partying it up in Florida... or not.

Nice contribution.

He's got some CRAZY skill. I think Florida ould afford to take the chance on him. Imagine if he turns out like a St. Louis type player?

 

[El Duderino]

...was average height (5'10" - 6'), how high would he have been taken?

Assuming that his weight also would be higher (around 185 lbs) and barring teams being scared off by his "interesting" personality (unlikely that they would be scared), he would be a top-10 pick in the draft, probably at number 5 instead of Strome.

 

[William H Bonney]

Enough with the religious talk. It shut down one thread earlier and we're not going down that road again. Drop it.

 

[Lobstertainment]

Nice contribution.

He's got some CRAZY skill. I think Florida ould afford to take the chance on him. Imagine if he turns out like a St. Louis type player?

I see what you did there.

 

[The Angry Teatowel]

Mid to late 1st.

His personality was another reason he fell out of the 1st round.

His 'personality'? We know what you're alluding to there, Mr. Subtle. I watched a couple of interviews with him and he exuded charisma and personality. He seems like a great kid and definitely one I'll be keeping an eye on. I think if the Avs had another, later pick after Siemens, they would have gone for him and I was disappointed that they didn't.

 

[Reddawg]

His 'personality'? We know what you're alluding to there, Mr. Subtle. I watched a couple of interviews with him and he exuded charisma and personality. He seems like a great kid and definitely one I'll be keeping an eye on. I think if the Avs had another, later pick after Siemens, they would have gone for him and I was disappointed that they didn't.

What did you want him to say? Everytime someone says the "R" word in a Grimaldi thread the banhammer comes out.

 

[The Angry Teatowel]

What did you want him to say? Everytime someone says the "R" word in a Grimaldi thread the banhammer comes out.

If he knew that, then the best thing would be to say nothing at all rather than take yet another dig, albeit thinly veiled, at Grimaldi's religious beliefs.

 

[Edges7*]

Only in hockey you're gonna have a guy get passed on because he's not willing to party every night, drink and get in trouble every once while then.

it's one thing to not do so...another to throw your teammates under the bus over it.

And while I would like to believe that he got caught up in the moment of the interview, I don't believe that was the case here...

'Nuff said...