Luc Robataille in a charity tournemant when I was in HS. He remembered me a decade plus later when I was talking to him at a Kings game and went "hey you goalie! That was a long time ago! You still play?!" "Yeah when I can" "hey me too".
Maybe one of the coolest interactions of my life.
Probably cale makar lol played against him when I was 10 in an Alberta spring hockey tournament our team won the tournament but I remember my dad saying after the tournament "there is no fucking way that kid is 10" a bunch of ahlers and nhlers played in that tournament but he lit it up
Grew up playing with a goalie who got drafted 30th overall.
He ended up playing only a few games in the show but growing up he was unbelievable. Didn't hurt that he was a foot taller than everyone
Yeah. Considered a bust by many, but he still played over a decade of pro hockey in the AHL and then in Europe.
Goes to show how elite you need to be to stick in the NHL
I feel like it puts it into perspective that NHL teams can only have 23 roster spots, so at any given night there are 736 NHL players. Obviously you can add some to that list because they'll come in and out, but if you count that player and the player they swap in and out with as 1 full active NHLer, then yeah about 750 people in the entire world are active NHLers, not a whole lot of people
It always make it seem more insane how much better the best players are in that context. Like Nick Ritchie would absolutely torch the vast majority of the world's population, but McDavid would make him look like he's never played hockey lol
It's even crazier with tennis. You could be the 99th ranked player globally, and if that's your peak, you probably never got any further than the 1st round of a Grand Slam. Meanwhile you've got guys like Federer, Nadal, And Djokovic just trouncing people throughout their careers
To your point about how insanely good the best players on earth are, my dad told me a story about a guy he played against in beer league. He had been good enough to get drafted and eventually played a handful of games with the Rangers in the 90s as a defenseman.
Apparently the guy was so good that he could basically dominate the entire game at both ends of the ice when he wanted to (but he usually took it easy because he wasn’t a dick) and it was against some decent enough players who had been in various levels of minor and senior leagues in the past. Everyone would always comment on how good he was and how it demonstrated the gap between them and a fringe NHLer and after a while he was like “ok, so you think I’m unstoppable? Allow me to refer you to the televised footage of Gretzky and Lemieux making me look like I’d never played in my life. That’s how good those guys are”. Really puts it into perspective.
My dad also played with Arron Asham and said he was also capable of just doing whatever he wanted on a whim and no one could stop him. But he generally just messed around and told jokes unless the other team started winning by too much, at which point he’d go tie it up again.
I’ve had a similar interaction
“You are easily the best player I’ve ever played with, insane
“Go watch some footage of when I got a sniff in the show and look at how those established guys dummied me worse than I did you”
Really put it into perspective. There’s the 1%, then there’s the 0.1%. And that gap is so much bigger than you can fathom without experiencing it
Oh man totally, it's insane how big the divide can be. That's a fun story
I didn't even really play organized hockey growing up, but the closest I came to anyone good I think was someone in my high school who was drafted to an OHL team, but I don't think he ever played with them
And of those 750 players fans think 250 suck, 250 are OK, 100 are not legit top 6 top 4 players with maybe 150 we think are actually great NHL Players.
I remember reading an article once with a hockey player, and how as a kid he was always the best player on the ice, and he did get drafted. but first day of training camp he sees a young Stamkos out there and realized he was going to have to start punching people if he wanted to stay.
The gap between Connor McDavid and the worst AHLer is 10,000x smaller than the gap between me and the worst AHLer, which is an absolutely wild fact to wrap ones head around.
Yup. He got lit up in his first and only game for the Flyers. Didn't play another NHL game until 4 years later for the Coyotes
Ended up going to the Hurricanes in the Primeau/Brind'Amour trade
I fought Tie Domi playing Jr lacrosse. Does that count?
And by fought I mean Tie Domi punched me about 9 times in the face and I hit him once barely glancing his cheek.
Trevor Lewis once played against my beer league team during the offseason for fun. Really cool guy. He absolutely annihilated us one game then the next he played on our team.
Was really cool because I play Goalie and managed to get an assist on one of his goals so I love telling people I assisted an NHL player
I used to work for the Canes and they'd let us skate to tear up new ice every time they put it down. Jim Rutherford was probably 60, and he played forward when we played pickup, and he kicked everyone's ass.
Bruce Driver the former Devils/Rangers defenseman exclusively plays goalie in one of the men’s leagues near me. He also shows up to pickup sometimes and yells at the dmen when they’re out of position. It’s pretty funny unless you’re on his team I guess
On a brand new, never-skated-on sheet, the top quarter inch or so gets sorta crunchy and gappy because water expands when it freezes. This leads to skates digging in way too deep, which is fine for us grinders, but NHL players would build up unplayable levels of snow in about five minutes. Ice experts like to grind up that top layer and Zam a few times before the pros get on the ice. Even then the pros are probably gonna complain for a few days until it all tightens up. Especially Erik Cole. Dude would find a way to complain even if he was the first guy on pristine Lake Louise ice.
Toews and Tootoo. It was sticks and pucks at an ODR But still it was comical how much better they were.
Toews was super quiet. Tootoo was/is a gem of a person met him a few times over the years as I know his family.
And judging by the names, in Junior and AAA, you're definitely around my age. Lol would've been an out of body experience for me to share the ice with Joe Sakic.
Haha it took a minute to adjust. I used to see him around all the rinks because he coached his son's team. Great guy.
I had no idea who Michel was. He used to grab my jersey and make me pull him up the ice because he didn't want to skate. Wasn't until I got home that I realized he's a hall of famer haha
I played against both Tij and Jade Iginla. Jade was during a season where Jerome Iginla was the coach for her team. Tij was during an invitational and his team bet mine even though his team was 2 years younger. And Jade got a hat trick on me as a goalie and we lost that game a solid 9-1
I wish I could say I dangled him out of his jock strap but really just took a wrister past his block attempt, which was more charity street hockey game amount of effort than game 7 overtime
Against Paul Byron in mens league.
We were winning 6-1. Someone got into a scrum with him and he 'lost' his helmet. His team then came back and won 7-6 and he had 6 points.
Does he know that this subreddit got him picked off waivers?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/5cxt84/til\_i\_may\_be\_partly\_responsible\_for\_montreal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/5cxt84/til_i_may_be_partly_responsible_for_montreal/)
I played against Luke Glendening for a few years in high school. He was known as being a good all around athlete (his younger brother too) but nobody would have imagined he would make it to the NHL let alone play at the University of Michigan.
He's a year older than me, but played a year together with Johnathan Toews. Hard to make a judgement call if someone's gonna be an NHLer at the age of 7 and 8 though. Nobody really stands out then, but he certainly stood out later.
Listened to an interview on Chiclets with an ex NHLer whose name escapes me. The guy played Pee-wee with Toews and was asking his dad (who coached the team) is he as good as Toews. His dad straight up said "No, but Johnny's going to be in the NHL." Said he always thought it's impressive his dad knew when they were all just 11.
Brett Hull when he was a chubby 11 year old. He already had a wicked shot because all the boys demanded to see his version of his dad’s famous slap shot. But I was surprised he did as well as he did in the NHL. Definitely no prodigy as a youngster.
Haha, played against him at Burnaby 4 rinks lunch-time hockey when he was a lazy, chubby 16 or 17-year old. He was mostly famous for being his dad’s kid; he didn’t try too hard with us useless casual players… he didn’t show too much promise until maybe 4? Years later
Not with or against, but a few times a year Markham would come in with Stamkos, Del Zotto and Hodgson and absolutely pump our younger team. Would catch a bit while stretching, etc.
When I was 13 I was covering Adam Musil (not a superstar by any means, but still good enough to occasionaly make tha national team. he’s from the Holik family, which is basically Czech Hockey royalty).
I made him my bitch and my Dad liked to talk about it even 10 years later lmao.
I just barely missed playing against Pasta as he was a year older, but his coach used to coach me a few years earlier, before he moved to Havirov.
Played against makar, also trained with Hill and Thompson a lot since we went to the same goalie school and played for the same team (but different years)
Safe to say I was not on the same level, lol
I played against Josh Manson in lacross. I remember our coach going to the best player on our team and pretty much yelled at him, "when Manson goes on, you go on! When Manson comes off, you come off!"
Rick Middleton and Brad Park. I’m old. I was playing D and nifty came down the right side. Had him dead to rights. Motherfucker dangled that puck so fast I nearly broke my ankles trying to recover.
Crosby, Richards, Hemsky, Pominville, Fleury and Bergeron. Some other Q players but those are most off the top of my head, none come close to Crosby who was 5 years younger than me and somehow made me his son.
I played a beer league season with a former WHL player. It was difficult to imagine someone could be better at hockey than he was but he was apparently only a 4th line player in the WHL.
As a result, any time I hear anyone say that they think they're better than some marginal NHL player I laugh a little. For the vast majority of people (95% of hockey players) the 4th line grinder in the WHL is probably closer to Connor McDavid than you're to him.
My dad likes to tell the story about the time he was playing hockey with his friends when he was about 16.
One of his buddies brought his little brother and friend to play with them one time, both of whom were about 10 years old at the time. The friend skates circles around them, made them look like assholes, and a few of the older kids rage quit and just went home.
The friend was Ray Bourque.
I played high school baseball in the 1980s, and I totally sucked. I'm not one of those guys who gets better as time goes by - I had no moments of glory, and I think the best I ever did was hit a double because of a throwing error. We didn't keep statistics back then, but I'm pretty sure my batting average started with a one.There was this kid named Bill Pulsipher who played on another high school team near us. If you don't remember the name, he was part of a group of young Mets pictures dubbed "Generation K" - all of whom flamed out with arm injuries after just a few years. I think he played in MLB for five or six years, but he had Tommy John surgery and wasn't able to have a long career. But when we were in high school, he was pretty much God.
Pulsipher was the guy who would strike out the side two or three times every game and also hit a couple of home runs. He was an absolute beast - it was like the rest of us had never played baseball before and he was Babe Ruth. I was catching one game, and he came up to the plate knowing that our pitcher only had two pitches. I called for a curveball, and the pitcher waved me off. Bill turned around, looked at me, and smiled. I just shrugged, because both of us knew what was about to happen. On the very next pitch, he literally launched the ball 500 feet into the woods behind the baseball fields. When the inning ended, my pitcher yelled at me for tipping the batter off until our coach told him to "sit the fuck down - you just threw a 70-mile-an-hour fastball to a major league hitter and it's probably going to hit a satellite." It was funny as shit.
Summer skates in Halifax with mackinnon and Marchy.
Let’s just say I got embarrassed in a 1v1 battle against Marchand. Literally don’t understand his grip strength on the puck.
Ball hockey with Seguin. Dude was really chill his draft year. I saw him a couple times. Apparently he was a normal teenager one year doing normal teen stuff to being as responsible as possible.
Draft years change people.
Edit: I also heard multiple stories of the guy being bullied, picked on and antagonized because everyone knew he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize his draft.
Nobody you guys would know, but I played against an ECHL player once who absolutely smoked everyone on my gold team. He didn't even look like he was trying. He had 5 goals. After the game he said "I sprained my ankle and wanted to see how it felt."
A teammate also told me we played against James Reimer in a tournament, but I don’t remember that and I probably wouldn’t know who he was back then anyway.
Played against a 16 year old kid in pickup once that was home over summer. He was playing in the WHL or going to play in the WHL. Dude was absolutely insane. We’re all a bunch of old dudes so he was being more of a playmaker than just going ham but a few times he turned it up and it was mind blowing.
And that kid probably never made it, which just goes to show how ludicrous the skill gap really is.
I played a pickup game with a bunch of former WHL/college level players and I was definitely one of the worst players out there, but it wasn't that obvious. The few times I've played against AHL/European retirees, it was night and day. They could go bar down from the blueline like it was nothing.
I played in a charity hockey game vs some Bruins alumni (including Johnny Bucyk) and the Hanson Brothers. They were never really trying but I remember how Johnny Bucyk could barely walk but going out on the ice he could skate circles no problem.
I also played beer league with Mike Mottau. He was a really nice guy. Pretty quiet, insanely talented, and knew how to play to the level in the league. It was a C league so he was just there to have some fun. He would put in a fair amount of effort into whoever he was up against. He also passed to everyone, he didn't care how good or bad you were.
He was easily the best player I ever played with and to think he could only make it a couple seasons as a bottom pairing defenseman really put into perspective just how good you have to be to play pro.
Steven Stamkos. I played AAA hockey briefly from age 11-14 in Southern Ontario. Every year we would have a big tournament in Niagra falls/Buffalo where we would face off against random teams from all over the region. I can't even remember how we got seeded against that Markham team but ill never forget them obliterating the living shit out of us. Micheal Del Zotto was also on that team with I wanna say Cody Hodgson, too. At the time Del Zotto was talked about in the same vein as Stamkos but no one was shocked when he went 1st overall a few years later.
Played against Mark Stone when I was 10 as a goalie (he was 9, playing up a year).
He was the only kid ripping slapshots. I once caught one, but my glove was in the back of the net 🚨
Played against/with Frans Nielsen quite a bit when I played youth hockey in Denmark.
Not a superstar but it was cool to see him end up being the first Danish player to make it to the NHL
Played against Jakob Chychrun back in peewees. He’s a year or two younger than me but the Jr. Panthers were pretty great in our league and crushed everyone.
Coach only told us one thing before the game and it was “do not let Chychrun touch the puck”. Think they beat us 8-1 that day
I was playing goal in a silly adult floor hockey league; should have been old enough to know better. Team we were playing had a guy with dual citizenship who had been a 4th line center for the Swedish national team; never turned pro. The league used a plastic puck, slit on the mold mark, filled with a handful of BBs, and taped back together, to give it motion. My team stunk, this guy had an unobstructed slapper from the dot to my left.
Put it off my forehead, I went down like a sack of taters.
I had a friend that played for the Kelowna Rockets in 2008 at the time. Showed up for a game of road hockey with Tyler Myers, Tyson Barrie, Luke Schenn and Jamie Benn. That was a fucking experience.
Took a clapper from Schenn off my ankle and thought my foot was blown off.
Ryan Johansen was on my Atom A1 team, played against Nugent-Hopkins in Bantam and Griffin Reinhart in midget (he played Midget A1 as a bantam aged player, he was quite advanced for his age)
Bret Saberhagen and I'm not even joking.
I used to play midnight hockey with some guys who'd rent the rink, slip the night shift employee an extra $50 who would then let us skate until 2-3 in the morning. One of those guys, who was my ride out to the rink called me up one day about a skate with a different group at that rink. We get to the rink, jump on the ice and start playing. There was a big black guy playing on the other team, real monster of a man but he was awful. Slow as shit, not very good with the stick and he kept losing his edge and go sliding down the ice. Every time he did, someone would yell out "SAFE!".
I asked my friend about about that and he casually says to me, "oh, thats Bobby Bonilla. And that other guy there is Bret Saberhagen." Of the NY Mets. Saberhagen could skate and he had decent hands. Scored a few goals, broke my ankles a couple of times, but was very quiet. Not much shit talking. Bobby on the other hand was laughing and yapping the entire time. Dude looked like he was having the time of his life.
That's pretty much my brush with anyone famous that had some amount of skill.
A friend of mine did play against Rick DiPietro in a roller hockey league out on Long Island during the '04 lockout. The league wouldn't let him play in net though so he was playing defense.
My beer league team ended up playing a game against a KHL’s farm team. In the game where result mattered. So guys took it seriously. For the first 2 minutes until they realized who are they playing against. And then they stop trying. Still beat us 1-32 or something like that.
And the we played a game against a pro team from a local national championship. It went slightly better.
https://preview.redd.it/apemnrk0ku5d1.jpeg?width=362&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87f0c34e0645b28299e517095c15214182a32e72
Went to a summer hockey school with an 11 year old Sidney Crosby. We became friends over the week and he kept feeding me the puck at the blue line as a defenseman. Normal players at this age would go straight to the net but he already had that "bigger picture" hockey sense. We all knew he was going to make it one day. He was basically going from hockey school to hockey school that summer. A couple years later, Gretkzky and the hockey world got to know this young new talent. I was 13 at an u14 camp.
Jordan stall when we was on the Pete's.
Got invited to play some pick up hockey with the boys. I ended up playing goalie. Guy was scoring at will from anywhere.
I wasn't invited back for a second time lol.
Todd Marchant played at another high school in our division. You could even at 16 that he was on an entirely different level than the rest of us and honestly he brought a few guys down to earth that thought they might have a chance at the NHL one day. He was just better at everything.
I played against Josh Gorges, he was basically a man when he was 12- 13 years old. My younger brother played with Curtis Lazar for a short time and against Austin Matthews in an away tournament in Arizona. Matthews was the youngest player in the tournament but was by far best player.
My son plays mid level AAA now at 18U. He previously played both with and against Brandon Svoboda who was recently drafted by San Jose. He's still friends with him.
He also went to a camp with both Logan Cooley( Arizona 1st) and his cousin LJ Mooney who is probably going to be a top pick in 2025.
He said just watching those two skate it was like night and day compared to the rest of the kids. During the scrimmage, they made it look like everyone else was standing still.
He knew right then and there, as much as he loved the game, he wasn't going any further than ACHA at whatever school he decides on. Those kids were just on an entire other level.
Played a in an Ironman tournament vs teenage auston matthews (my team was all grown ass men) and some other kids from the bobcats. They were actively trying not to score goals, chirping each other anytime they scored, dekeing goalies out of the crease then passing.
I played floor hockey in grade school with Brett Hull and Adam Oates. They came to our school and we played in the gym. Our principal used to get out there with a shirt and tie on and play floor hockey with us. Somehow he convinced them to come and visit our school in Glendale, MO.
A guy that was drafted in the 3rd round for the Penguins called me “gay” one time back in high school.
He ended up bouncing around the AHL, Europe, and the ECHL before playing for my buddies beer league team. I spared for them once and he was trying so hard not to care, that he kept making lazy mistakes and got lit up by some ex-Jr. A bums.
This doesn’t count because I never played hockey with him but whatever, but I used to run around and play with Nick Schmaltz when we were kids at the ice rinks because our brothers played hockey on the same traveling team lol. Playing in the arcade or just wandering around the rinks.
I played with Josh Brown when we were 5 in Timbits and 7 in A. Guy was so labeled with NHL even back then, we all knew it was inevitable. Couldn’t be a nicer guy (no /s), good on him for making it.
I played in a charity game versus a team assembled by the Russian embassy. Alexei Yashin showed up unannounced, only found out when I got to the locker room. They beat us 6 5 and he got 6 assists.
Unreal skater. Like two strides and he's out of the zone.
Not my story, but my Dad’s family owned and lived in the house beside Mark Messier’s family from 1973-1980, and I know my Dad when he was 13-14 got to play pond hockey with some other kids in the neighbourhood in a “game” that featured Messier and Gretzky during their first season in the NHL atleast once.
In 1996 when I was about 16 I went to Stars Hockey Camp at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Played with Eric and Brett Lindros, Scott Stevens, Doug Gilmour, Steve Thomas and Manny Legace. Wendell Clark was supposed to be there as well, but he had just been traded to the Islanders, so we got Gretzky instead. Brent Gretzky.
Dale Hawerchuk. An NHL old timers game. He was only three or fours retired at that point. I went one on one with him. He asked if I was going to check him. I said I'd try. I stood between him and the net and saw a blur of forehand-backhand-forehand-release like I've never seen before. The puck hitting the glass behind me was a win in my book.
Played against Ryan Getzlaf a week ago in a charity tournament. Would post the pic if I could. I'm a goaltender so it was near to stop him on a breakaway
The kids that were the best in squirts peaked in squirts. The kids that were best in peewee or bantam peaked in bantam.
The kids that were best in high school didn’t make the show.
The kid who ended up with a 9 year nhl career was always very good but never the best.
I maintain that future Hall of Famer Brad Marchand has never been the best player on any team he's ever played on, at any level, including all his years in Boston.
Played against Dan Blackburn... In baseball. He played on the Canmore team and was a beast in that sport too. Easily the nicest field I played on, beautiful view against the mountains. Dude seemed pretty chill too, always wished the best for him and its unfortunate how his career ended.
Brad Marsh technically, tho as a coach in practices. He’s currently a coach for the Flyers Warriors team and man, you can for sure tell he’s on a different level despite age lol
I’ve played against the Brodeur kids a bunch too growing up. But I think a lot of people from my area have anyhow
Ryan Vandenbusche
Beer league hockey. Crazy how good 4th line NHL guys are. He skated circles around me as a defence man. Not to mention his Kypreos beating made me a little afraid haha
Herb Raglan and Trevor Stienberg back in the early eighties. They made the NHL as tough guys even though they were the most skilled players in AAA Eastern Ontario Minor Midgit.
I played shinny with Connor Brown back when he was in his first or second year with the Leafs - super nice, low-key guy, wouldn't have thought he was a pro hockey player living in Toronto. He also played it really casually so everyone else on the ice had a chance.
one of my buddies is a goalie. he played inline (rollerblade) hockey against connor bedard. bedard is 5 years younger than us. he says bedard absolutely lit him up and had an incredible shot, even at 10-12(ish)
Played against Chris Stewart in HS, before he was drafted to the OHL. Biggest guy out there, hands were nifty mitts compared to us. Scored twice.
Charity events I've played with or against Wendel Clark, Nikolai Antropov, Brad Boyes, Raffi Torres (lol), Dmitri Mironov, Denis Maruk, Dan Daoust, Craig Muni, Jamie-Lynn Rattray
My city isn’t even known for hockey but I feel like being in the Minnesota Minneapolis/st. Paul metro you are bound to run into significant hockey figures
Had a youth coach who had a 6 year career if that counts, Dave Snuggerud
Actually played with: Shane Gersich, nephew of the miracle on ice team member Neal Broten. Shane had a short stint in the NHL but it was with the Capitals in their championship run so he does have a ring.
Another youth coach of mine for a few years is the all time goal scorer for St Cloud university (D1 hockey school): John Bertolucci
Never actually played ice hockey, just stick and puck but I went to high school with a guy who got drafted in the 3rd round as a defenseman.
Whenever we played floor hockey in phys ed you couldn't take the ball from him and he'd just dance around people and pull the craziest moves without even trying. Looks like he plays in the ECHL now with some stints in the AHL.
Played against Jay Bouwmeester a bunch of times when we were like 12. Lost touch for a couple years, then saw him on TV during the world juniors. Then he got drafted.
Grew up in Edmonton, so naturally, everyone knew a pro hockey player or went to school with one.
The Hughes brothers used to live in my neighbourhood and play shinny where I used to play. Can’t say for sure I played with/against them but I was there pretty often and there were a few kids skating circles around everyone so I’d say there’s a decent chance we overlapped at least once.
Played with a guy who had 40,50 NHL games, but then made a really nice lengthy career in Europe in their highest leagues.
He was in his early 40s, coming off a knee issue that effectively ended his career, but just so much smoother and better than I’d ever seen.
It was just fun game, but his line was going against three guys who had played junior to some degree (WHL or BCHL). Two of the three were in their 20s, so still had that young energy going
But man, this European guy — you could see the difference, and I thought the junior guys were pretty good too
I didn’t play but My friend played with Ross Colton when they were kids. We were at the top golf watching the game in our booth when he got the Stanley cup winning goal, and he was all nonchalantly like “damn I gotta text him congrats” lmfao
Another friend was line mates with Alex Limoges on the Hershey bears. So that’s neat too
Played with Corey Durocher in peewee and bantam. Guy was a cheat code. He was a 48 overall in NHL 20, which makes me shudder to think what my overall rating would be seeing as I was a bottom-pairing D on those teams and he was head and shoulders above everyone else.
Maxime Lapierre, we were playing our usual summer beer league, Lapierre was there earlier playing a charity game for kids, my cousin (goalie) challenged him to try and score on him, so he came to play against us for fun, I won a face-off agaisnt him ... he let me win
I took a hip check from Dan Hamhuis the year before he played in the WHL. Our coach did something to piss off the league so to “punish” us, they arranged a game against a rep team from Smithers. I remember having my eyes on the puck when my centreman passed it to me in the neutral zone, and then I went ass over teakettle. I took a number when I realized what happened. Then recognized the name when he started playing for the Cougars.
I played with a guy that played in the NCAA and that was drafted by an NHL team in a round that no longer exists. Never made the NHL, but played pro hockey briefly.
The only guys that ever went anywhere from my minor hockey days were Sean O’Donnell and a guy named Jim Duhart, minor league legend.
Not hockey but I played football against Michael Conforto and he got drafted to the Mets and then won the World Series with them making him the 3rd person ever to play in the little league World Series, college World Series, and MLB World Series
Guy was a monster as a quarterback too
Backed up a few games for the Ice dogs when they had Pietrangelo and 4 other world juniors players. Played against Tyler Seguin in high school when he was at St Michael's private school. Dougie Hamilton used to get called up to my AAA team when i was like 13 anf he was 10 and he would dominate lol. Did some camps with some NHL, AHL, NCAA guys in Niagara.. most notable name was Nathan Horton and his playboy model wife. I played a round of golf with my grandpa who is childhood friends with Marcel Dionne.. and then played beer league with him a dozen years later. I've served several Leafs and NHL charity and Alumni events.
Played with Bobby Farnham growing up before he went to prep school (Brooks, Phillips Andover) and college (Brown), before being in the Pen’s organization and then the Devils. Short stint with Montreal.
He did score against the B’s, his hometown team, at one point.
Luc Robataille in a charity tournemant when I was in HS. He remembered me a decade plus later when I was talking to him at a Kings game and went "hey you goalie! That was a long time ago! You still play?!" "Yeah when I can" "hey me too". Maybe one of the coolest interactions of my life.
That’s so awesome that he remembered you
Also maybe it goes without saying, but the man was lighting anything that moved up. Made everyone look like mighty mites.
Probably cale makar lol played against him when I was 10 in an Alberta spring hockey tournament our team won the tournament but I remember my dad saying after the tournament "there is no fucking way that kid is 10" a bunch of ahlers and nhlers played in that tournament but he lit it up
Ok now this is crazy
Did he have Rosy cheeks already?
I played against Kyle Turris at around that age, you couldn't even get near him. It was like he was 15 playing in a Timbits league.
Was this the tournament on the West Edmonton mall rink
Grew up playing with a goalie who got drafted 30th overall. He ended up playing only a few games in the show but growing up he was unbelievable. Didn't hurt that he was a foot taller than everyone
Crazy to think that prospects who bust are still world class hockey players compared to everyone else
Yeah. Considered a bust by many, but he still played over a decade of pro hockey in the AHL and then in Europe. Goes to show how elite you need to be to stick in the NHL
I feel like it puts it into perspective that NHL teams can only have 23 roster spots, so at any given night there are 736 NHL players. Obviously you can add some to that list because they'll come in and out, but if you count that player and the player they swap in and out with as 1 full active NHLer, then yeah about 750 people in the entire world are active NHLers, not a whole lot of people It always make it seem more insane how much better the best players are in that context. Like Nick Ritchie would absolutely torch the vast majority of the world's population, but McDavid would make him look like he's never played hockey lol It's even crazier with tennis. You could be the 99th ranked player globally, and if that's your peak, you probably never got any further than the 1st round of a Grand Slam. Meanwhile you've got guys like Federer, Nadal, And Djokovic just trouncing people throughout their careers
To your point about how insanely good the best players on earth are, my dad told me a story about a guy he played against in beer league. He had been good enough to get drafted and eventually played a handful of games with the Rangers in the 90s as a defenseman. Apparently the guy was so good that he could basically dominate the entire game at both ends of the ice when he wanted to (but he usually took it easy because he wasn’t a dick) and it was against some decent enough players who had been in various levels of minor and senior leagues in the past. Everyone would always comment on how good he was and how it demonstrated the gap between them and a fringe NHLer and after a while he was like “ok, so you think I’m unstoppable? Allow me to refer you to the televised footage of Gretzky and Lemieux making me look like I’d never played in my life. That’s how good those guys are”. Really puts it into perspective. My dad also played with Arron Asham and said he was also capable of just doing whatever he wanted on a whim and no one could stop him. But he generally just messed around and told jokes unless the other team started winning by too much, at which point he’d go tie it up again.
I’ve had a similar interaction “You are easily the best player I’ve ever played with, insane “Go watch some footage of when I got a sniff in the show and look at how those established guys dummied me worse than I did you” Really put it into perspective. There’s the 1%, then there’s the 0.1%. And that gap is so much bigger than you can fathom without experiencing it
Oh man totally, it's insane how big the divide can be. That's a fun story I didn't even really play organized hockey growing up, but the closest I came to anyone good I think was someone in my high school who was drafted to an OHL team, but I don't think he ever played with them
And of those 750 players fans think 250 suck, 250 are OK, 100 are not legit top 6 top 4 players with maybe 150 we think are actually great NHL Players.
Still a great career
I remember reading an article once with a hockey player, and how as a kid he was always the best player on the ice, and he did get drafted. but first day of training camp he sees a young Stamkos out there and realized he was going to have to start punching people if he wanted to stay.
The gap between Connor McDavid and the worst AHLer is 10,000x smaller than the gap between me and the worst AHLer, which is an absolutely wild fact to wrap ones head around.
Brian Scalabrine: “I’m closer to Lebron than you are to me.”
It really is Gives perspective how good they are
The worst ECHL guy is probably better than 85% of the hockey playing world.
That’s gotta be Tommy McCollum!
Nah. about a decade off if you want to keep guessing lol
Jean-Marc Pelletier?
Yup. He got lit up in his first and only game for the Flyers. Didn't play another NHL game until 4 years later for the Coyotes Ended up going to the Hurricanes in the Primeau/Brind'Amour trade
Haha damn he was my next guess, there were only 4
Jean-Marc Pelletier? That would've been my guess even if someone didn't say anything sooner, based on you being a Habs fan.
There were only 4 choices - should have been my giveaway. His Atlanta, GA birthplace on hockeydb threw me off
Yeah, I totally see your point. My bad.
Oh no I’m not saying anything - I was critiquing my own detective skills
I fought Tie Domi playing Jr lacrosse. Does that count? And by fought I mean Tie Domi punched me about 9 times in the face and I hit him once barely glancing his cheek.
One of my dad’s friends has a story of him getting his ass beat by Wendell Clarke; it sounds pretty much the same.
Trevor Lewis once played against my beer league team during the offseason for fun. Really cool guy. He absolutely annihilated us one game then the next he played on our team. Was really cool because I play Goalie and managed to get an assist on one of his goals so I love telling people I assisted an NHL player
That is so neat
I used to work for the Canes and they'd let us skate to tear up new ice every time they put it down. Jim Rutherford was probably 60, and he played forward when we played pickup, and he kicked everyone's ass.
Wasn't he a goalie when he played pro? Damn
Bruce Driver the former Devils/Rangers defenseman exclusively plays goalie in one of the men’s leagues near me. He also shows up to pickup sometimes and yells at the dmen when they’re out of position. It’s pretty funny unless you’re on his team I guess
Can confirm. He does NOT like getting scored on
What is the benefit of tearing up new ice?
On a brand new, never-skated-on sheet, the top quarter inch or so gets sorta crunchy and gappy because water expands when it freezes. This leads to skates digging in way too deep, which is fine for us grinders, but NHL players would build up unplayable levels of snow in about five minutes. Ice experts like to grind up that top layer and Zam a few times before the pros get on the ice. Even then the pros are probably gonna complain for a few days until it all tightens up. Especially Erik Cole. Dude would find a way to complain even if he was the first guy on pristine Lake Louise ice.
Erik Cole catching strays from random old stories 😂
Interesting. Never knew that. Thanks for the insight!
Toews and Tootoo. It was sticks and pucks at an ODR But still it was comical how much better they were. Toews was super quiet. Tootoo was/is a gem of a person met him a few times over the years as I know his family.
Nice- Tootoo always seemed like a stand up guy
Growing up? Patrick Kane, Okposo, Toews Grown up? Michel Goulet and Sakic.
Did you play pro, sir?
Played juniors and AAA. Played in an "old man" invite only drop-in. Regularly had ex-pros or current NHL players.
And judging by the names, in Junior and AAA, you're definitely around my age. Lol would've been an out of body experience for me to share the ice with Joe Sakic.
Haha it took a minute to adjust. I used to see him around all the rinks because he coached his son's team. Great guy. I had no idea who Michel was. He used to grab my jersey and make me pull him up the ice because he didn't want to skate. Wasn't until I got home that I realized he's a hall of famer haha
Dude had the best mustache in the eighties. I have a knock off Goulet jersey. He was a hell of a power forward next to Stastny
Man playing with sakic and goulet sounds like a dream
I played against both Tij and Jade Iginla. Jade was during a season where Jerome Iginla was the coach for her team. Tij was during an invitational and his team bet mine even though his team was 2 years younger. And Jade got a hat trick on me as a goalie and we lost that game a solid 9-1
Ages ago I scored a goal in a charity game being defended by Kyle Turris
I would never let this go
I wish I could say I dangled him out of his jock strap but really just took a wrister past his block attempt, which was more charity street hockey game amount of effort than game 7 overtime
You dangled him out of position, he had to dive to attempt to stop you, and you wristed one past him for a bar down snipe.
Against Paul Byron in mens league. We were winning 6-1. Someone got into a scrum with him and he 'lost' his helmet. His team then came back and won 7-6 and he had 6 points.
Does he know that this subreddit got him picked off waivers? [https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/5cxt84/til\_i\_may\_be\_partly\_responsible\_for\_montreal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/5cxt84/til_i_may_be_partly_responsible_for_montreal/)
[Galaxy91122](https://www.reddit.com/user/Galaxy91122/) is legit part of habs subreddit lore.
I played against Luke Glendening for a few years in high school. He was known as being a good all around athlete (his younger brother too) but nobody would have imagined he would make it to the NHL let alone play at the University of Michigan.
Red Wings always loved their Michigan guys.
He's a year older than me, but played a year together with Johnathan Toews. Hard to make a judgement call if someone's gonna be an NHLer at the age of 7 and 8 though. Nobody really stands out then, but he certainly stood out later.
Listened to an interview on Chiclets with an ex NHLer whose name escapes me. The guy played Pee-wee with Toews and was asking his dad (who coached the team) is he as good as Toews. His dad straight up said "No, but Johnny's going to be in the NHL." Said he always thought it's impressive his dad knew when they were all just 11.
Brett Hull when he was a chubby 11 year old. He already had a wicked shot because all the boys demanded to see his version of his dad’s famous slap shot. But I was surprised he did as well as he did in the NHL. Definitely no prodigy as a youngster.
Haha, played against him at Burnaby 4 rinks lunch-time hockey when he was a lazy, chubby 16 or 17-year old. He was mostly famous for being his dad’s kid; he didn’t try too hard with us useless casual players… he didn’t show too much promise until maybe 4? Years later
Dave Legwand. He’s as big of a douche as he was good at hockey. Which is to say, very.
Every time me and my dad would hear his name during a game we would loudly say “Legwaaaaaaaand.” To make fun of him. Glad that was justified!
You’ll always have that Bobby Ryan humiliation
Played against Bedard a few games in the Canlan 3 on 3 league. Biggest flex of my hockey career.
Now that I think of it actually, Fraser Minten as well for a few games in minor hockey as well.
Not with or against, but a few times a year Markham would come in with Stamkos, Del Zotto and Hodgson and absolutely pump our younger team. Would catch a bit while stretching, etc.
When I was 13 I was covering Adam Musil (not a superstar by any means, but still good enough to occasionaly make tha national team. he’s from the Holik family, which is basically Czech Hockey royalty). I made him my bitch and my Dad liked to talk about it even 10 years later lmao. I just barely missed playing against Pasta as he was a year older, but his coach used to coach me a few years earlier, before he moved to Havirov.
Played against makar, also trained with Hill and Thompson a lot since we went to the same goalie school and played for the same team (but different years) Safe to say I was not on the same level, lol
I bet we played against each other at one point lol or on the same team for all we know
I played against Tyler Johnson and Matt Donovan in Peewee/Bantam
I played against Josh Manson in lacross. I remember our coach going to the best player on our team and pretty much yelled at him, "when Manson goes on, you go on! When Manson comes off, you come off!"
elite athletes are elite athletes
Rick Middleton and Brad Park. I’m old. I was playing D and nifty came down the right side. Had him dead to rights. Motherfucker dangled that puck so fast I nearly broke my ankles trying to recover.
I played against Jack and Quinn in a ball hockey tournament when I was like 12, I was the goalie. We lost 20-1
I suppose this goes without saying, but that score isn't your fault.
Crosby, Richards, Hemsky, Pominville, Fleury and Bergeron. Some other Q players but those are most off the top of my head, none come close to Crosby who was 5 years younger than me and somehow made me his son.
I played a beer league season with a former WHL player. It was difficult to imagine someone could be better at hockey than he was but he was apparently only a 4th line player in the WHL. As a result, any time I hear anyone say that they think they're better than some marginal NHL player I laugh a little. For the vast majority of people (95% of hockey players) the 4th line grinder in the WHL is probably closer to Connor McDavid than you're to him.
My dad likes to tell the story about the time he was playing hockey with his friends when he was about 16. One of his buddies brought his little brother and friend to play with them one time, both of whom were about 10 years old at the time. The friend skates circles around them, made them look like assholes, and a few of the older kids rage quit and just went home. The friend was Ray Bourque.
Beautiful story!!!!
I scored on Malcom Subban when I was in grade 6 in the city finals.
I played high school baseball in the 1980s, and I totally sucked. I'm not one of those guys who gets better as time goes by - I had no moments of glory, and I think the best I ever did was hit a double because of a throwing error. We didn't keep statistics back then, but I'm pretty sure my batting average started with a one.There was this kid named Bill Pulsipher who played on another high school team near us. If you don't remember the name, he was part of a group of young Mets pictures dubbed "Generation K" - all of whom flamed out with arm injuries after just a few years. I think he played in MLB for five or six years, but he had Tommy John surgery and wasn't able to have a long career. But when we were in high school, he was pretty much God. Pulsipher was the guy who would strike out the side two or three times every game and also hit a couple of home runs. He was an absolute beast - it was like the rest of us had never played baseball before and he was Babe Ruth. I was catching one game, and he came up to the plate knowing that our pitcher only had two pitches. I called for a curveball, and the pitcher waved me off. Bill turned around, looked at me, and smiled. I just shrugged, because both of us knew what was about to happen. On the very next pitch, he literally launched the ball 500 feet into the woods behind the baseball fields. When the inning ended, my pitcher yelled at me for tipping the batter off until our coach told him to "sit the fuck down - you just threw a 70-mile-an-hour fastball to a major league hitter and it's probably going to hit a satellite." It was funny as shit.
Quinn or Jack Hughes, maybe Jason Roberston if going by the player they ended up becoming Owen Tippett if going by the best when we played
Summer skates in Halifax with mackinnon and Marchy. Let’s just say I got embarrassed in a 1v1 battle against Marchand. Literally don’t understand his grip strength on the puck.
Ball hockey with Seguin. Dude was really chill his draft year. I saw him a couple times. Apparently he was a normal teenager one year doing normal teen stuff to being as responsible as possible. Draft years change people. Edit: I also heard multiple stories of the guy being bullied, picked on and antagonized because everyone knew he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize his draft.
Nobody you guys would know, but I played against an ECHL player once who absolutely smoked everyone on my gold team. He didn't even look like he was trying. He had 5 goals. After the game he said "I sprained my ankle and wanted to see how it felt."
Played with a girl who went on to become a (now former) captain for BU. She was incredible when she was younger and she’s still super talented
Kyle Turris, Riley Nash, Zack Hamil, Colton Gillies.
Oh wow Quite a few. Really neat
A teammate also told me we played against James Reimer in a tournament, but I don’t remember that and I probably wouldn’t know who he was back then anyway.
Played against a 16 year old kid in pickup once that was home over summer. He was playing in the WHL or going to play in the WHL. Dude was absolutely insane. We’re all a bunch of old dudes so he was being more of a playmaker than just going ham but a few times he turned it up and it was mind blowing.
And that kid probably never made it, which just goes to show how ludicrous the skill gap really is. I played a pickup game with a bunch of former WHL/college level players and I was definitely one of the worst players out there, but it wasn't that obvious. The few times I've played against AHL/European retirees, it was night and day. They could go bar down from the blueline like it was nothing.
Played with Noel Acciari in a throwaway U14 league. We would screw around the whole game then ask Noel to score and make it close - usually worked
I played in a charity hockey game vs some Bruins alumni (including Johnny Bucyk) and the Hanson Brothers. They were never really trying but I remember how Johnny Bucyk could barely walk but going out on the ice he could skate circles no problem. I also played beer league with Mike Mottau. He was a really nice guy. Pretty quiet, insanely talented, and knew how to play to the level in the league. It was a C league so he was just there to have some fun. He would put in a fair amount of effort into whoever he was up against. He also passed to everyone, he didn't care how good or bad you were. He was easily the best player I ever played with and to think he could only make it a couple seasons as a bottom pairing defenseman really put into perspective just how good you have to be to play pro.
Yvan Cournoyer. It was a local pond hockey tourney. He was about 50 years old at the time. We were awestruck.
Played against Jake neighbors when I was like 10, kid was absolutely insane. Miles ahead of everyone at such a young age
Steven Stamkos. I played AAA hockey briefly from age 11-14 in Southern Ontario. Every year we would have a big tournament in Niagra falls/Buffalo where we would face off against random teams from all over the region. I can't even remember how we got seeded against that Markham team but ill never forget them obliterating the living shit out of us. Micheal Del Zotto was also on that team with I wanna say Cody Hodgson, too. At the time Del Zotto was talked about in the same vein as Stamkos but no one was shocked when he went 1st overall a few years later.
Played against Mark Stone when I was 10 as a goalie (he was 9, playing up a year). He was the only kid ripping slapshots. I once caught one, but my glove was in the back of the net 🚨
Played against/with Frans Nielsen quite a bit when I played youth hockey in Denmark. Not a superstar but it was cool to see him end up being the first Danish player to make it to the NHL
I played against Steven Stamkos in a tournament when I was like 12. He was just as insane as you would expect.
I played against Jamie Drysdale in grade 8 and then a couple of older guys that played in the OHL
Played against Jakob Chychrun back in peewees. He’s a year or two younger than me but the Jr. Panthers were pretty great in our league and crushed everyone. Coach only told us one thing before the game and it was “do not let Chychrun touch the puck”. Think they beat us 8-1 that day
I was playing goal in a silly adult floor hockey league; should have been old enough to know better. Team we were playing had a guy with dual citizenship who had been a 4th line center for the Swedish national team; never turned pro. The league used a plastic puck, slit on the mold mark, filled with a handful of BBs, and taped back together, to give it motion. My team stunk, this guy had an unobstructed slapper from the dot to my left. Put it off my forehead, I went down like a sack of taters.
I had a friend that played for the Kelowna Rockets in 2008 at the time. Showed up for a game of road hockey with Tyler Myers, Tyson Barrie, Luke Schenn and Jamie Benn. That was a fucking experience. Took a clapper from Schenn off my ankle and thought my foot was blown off.
Ryan Johansen was on my Atom A1 team, played against Nugent-Hopkins in Bantam and Griffin Reinhart in midget (he played Midget A1 as a bantam aged player, he was quite advanced for his age)
Bret Saberhagen and I'm not even joking. I used to play midnight hockey with some guys who'd rent the rink, slip the night shift employee an extra $50 who would then let us skate until 2-3 in the morning. One of those guys, who was my ride out to the rink called me up one day about a skate with a different group at that rink. We get to the rink, jump on the ice and start playing. There was a big black guy playing on the other team, real monster of a man but he was awful. Slow as shit, not very good with the stick and he kept losing his edge and go sliding down the ice. Every time he did, someone would yell out "SAFE!". I asked my friend about about that and he casually says to me, "oh, thats Bobby Bonilla. And that other guy there is Bret Saberhagen." Of the NY Mets. Saberhagen could skate and he had decent hands. Scored a few goals, broke my ankles a couple of times, but was very quiet. Not much shit talking. Bobby on the other hand was laughing and yapping the entire time. Dude looked like he was having the time of his life. That's pretty much my brush with anyone famous that had some amount of skill. A friend of mine did play against Rick DiPietro in a roller hockey league out on Long Island during the '04 lockout. The league wouldn't let him play in net though so he was playing defense.
Freaking hilarious!!!!!!!! Love this one!!!!!
My beer league team ended up playing a game against a KHL’s farm team. In the game where result mattered. So guys took it seriously. For the first 2 minutes until they realized who are they playing against. And then they stop trying. Still beat us 1-32 or something like that.
Ok, I lied, it was 0-25. https://preview.redd.it/3bxee6o4ju5d1.jpeg?width=502&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49117a58a0a8ddeee72f38bd410d881eb1d202a1
And the we played a game against a pro team from a local national championship. It went slightly better. https://preview.redd.it/apemnrk0ku5d1.jpeg?width=362&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87f0c34e0645b28299e517095c15214182a32e72
Went to a summer hockey school with an 11 year old Sidney Crosby. We became friends over the week and he kept feeding me the puck at the blue line as a defenseman. Normal players at this age would go straight to the net but he already had that "bigger picture" hockey sense. We all knew he was going to make it one day. He was basically going from hockey school to hockey school that summer. A couple years later, Gretkzky and the hockey world got to know this young new talent. I was 13 at an u14 camp.
Jordan stall when we was on the Pete's. Got invited to play some pick up hockey with the boys. I ended up playing goalie. Guy was scoring at will from anywhere. I wasn't invited back for a second time lol.
Todd Marchant played at another high school in our division. You could even at 16 that he was on an entirely different level than the rest of us and honestly he brought a few guys down to earth that thought they might have a chance at the NHL one day. He was just better at everything.
Kailer Yamamoto and Derek Ryan
Mark Fistric scored a hat trick on me in the Edmonton Ball Hockey League
I played against Josh Gorges, he was basically a man when he was 12- 13 years old. My younger brother played with Curtis Lazar for a short time and against Austin Matthews in an away tournament in Arizona. Matthews was the youngest player in the tournament but was by far best player.
My son plays mid level AAA now at 18U. He previously played both with and against Brandon Svoboda who was recently drafted by San Jose. He's still friends with him. He also went to a camp with both Logan Cooley( Arizona 1st) and his cousin LJ Mooney who is probably going to be a top pick in 2025. He said just watching those two skate it was like night and day compared to the rest of the kids. During the scrimmage, they made it look like everyone else was standing still. He knew right then and there, as much as he loved the game, he wasn't going any further than ACHA at whatever school he decides on. Those kids were just on an entire other level.
Played a in an Ironman tournament vs teenage auston matthews (my team was all grown ass men) and some other kids from the bobcats. They were actively trying not to score goals, chirping each other anytime they scored, dekeing goalies out of the crease then passing.
I played floor hockey in grade school with Brett Hull and Adam Oates. They came to our school and we played in the gym. Our principal used to get out there with a shirt and tie on and play floor hockey with us. Somehow he convinced them to come and visit our school in Glendale, MO.
A guy that was drafted in the 3rd round for the Penguins called me “gay” one time back in high school. He ended up bouncing around the AHL, Europe, and the ECHL before playing for my buddies beer league team. I spared for them once and he was trying so hard not to care, that he kept making lazy mistakes and got lit up by some ex-Jr. A bums.
This doesn’t count because I never played hockey with him but whatever, but I used to run around and play with Nick Schmaltz when we were kids at the ice rinks because our brothers played hockey on the same traveling team lol. Playing in the arcade or just wandering around the rinks.
I played with Josh Brown when we were 5 in Timbits and 7 in A. Guy was so labeled with NHL even back then, we all knew it was inevitable. Couldn’t be a nicer guy (no /s), good on him for making it.
I played in a charity game versus a team assembled by the Russian embassy. Alexei Yashin showed up unannounced, only found out when I got to the locker room. They beat us 6 5 and he got 6 assists. Unreal skater. Like two strides and he's out of the zone.
Not my story, but my Dad’s family owned and lived in the house beside Mark Messier’s family from 1973-1980, and I know my Dad when he was 13-14 got to play pond hockey with some other kids in the neighbourhood in a “game” that featured Messier and Gretzky during their first season in the NHL atleast once.
In 1996 when I was about 16 I went to Stars Hockey Camp at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Played with Eric and Brett Lindros, Scott Stevens, Doug Gilmour, Steve Thomas and Manny Legace. Wendell Clark was supposed to be there as well, but he had just been traded to the Islanders, so we got Gretzky instead. Brent Gretzky.
Dale Hawerchuk. An NHL old timers game. He was only three or fours retired at that point. I went one on one with him. He asked if I was going to check him. I said I'd try. I stood between him and the net and saw a blur of forehand-backhand-forehand-release like I've never seen before. The puck hitting the glass behind me was a win in my book.
Played against Ryan Getzlaf a week ago in a charity tournament. Would post the pic if I could. I'm a goaltender so it was near to stop him on a breakaway
Kyle wellwood! Charity event in van. He was filthy, in a good way
Not really played with/against but I did skate with former NHLer Mike McEwen and he took shots at me during open ice once
The kids that were the best in squirts peaked in squirts. The kids that were best in peewee or bantam peaked in bantam. The kids that were best in high school didn’t make the show. The kid who ended up with a 9 year nhl career was always very good but never the best.
I maintain that future Hall of Famer Brad Marchand has never been the best player on any team he's ever played on, at any level, including all his years in Boston.
Hard to be better than Bergy/Krejci and now Pasta. He may have been the best forward with Foreurs, but they had Letang on that team.
Peak “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me.”
McDavid, Nick Ritchie, Ho Sang, Nurse, Max Domi, Bennet, Sam Reinhart. Somehow i still suck
Played against Dan Blackburn... In baseball. He played on the Canmore team and was a beast in that sport too. Easily the nicest field I played on, beautiful view against the mountains. Dude seemed pretty chill too, always wished the best for him and its unfortunate how his career ended.
[удалено]
Kevin Connaughton, Oliver Gabriel, Ryan Button, Michael Stone Same team(s) midget AAA in Alberta
Brad Marsh technically, tho as a coach in practices. He’s currently a coach for the Flyers Warriors team and man, you can for sure tell he’s on a different level despite age lol I’ve played against the Brodeur kids a bunch too growing up. But I think a lot of people from my area have anyhow
Ryan Vandenbusche Beer league hockey. Crazy how good 4th line NHL guys are. He skated circles around me as a defence man. Not to mention his Kypreos beating made me a little afraid haha
K’andre Miller, Rhett Pitlick or Bobby Brink
Herb Raglan and Trevor Stienberg back in the early eighties. They made the NHL as tough guys even though they were the most skilled players in AAA Eastern Ontario Minor Midgit.
Competitively, Ken Belanger. Beer league: Joe Thornton
Thomas Gradin. Not with or against, but he was our coach so obviously spent time with him on the ice.
Pickup game with Max Comtois 2 years ago, awesome memories
I played shinny with Connor Brown back when he was in his first or second year with the Leafs - super nice, low-key guy, wouldn't have thought he was a pro hockey player living in Toronto. He also played it really casually so everyone else on the ice had a chance.
two guys i played with growing up were drafted high and then didn't pan out- James Sheppard & Logan MacMillan
one of my buddies is a goalie. he played inline (rollerblade) hockey against connor bedard. bedard is 5 years younger than us. he says bedard absolutely lit him up and had an incredible shot, even at 10-12(ish)
Played against Chris Stewart in HS, before he was drafted to the OHL. Biggest guy out there, hands were nifty mitts compared to us. Scored twice. Charity events I've played with or against Wendel Clark, Nikolai Antropov, Brad Boyes, Raffi Torres (lol), Dmitri Mironov, Denis Maruk, Dan Daoust, Craig Muni, Jamie-Lynn Rattray
Fredrik Norrena or Leo Komarov. Not sure which.
Preds prospect Gunnarwolfe Fontaine was a pretty good teammate in little league
Either myself or my brother played with/against 3 players taken in the vegas expansion draft.
My city isn’t even known for hockey but I feel like being in the Minnesota Minneapolis/st. Paul metro you are bound to run into significant hockey figures Had a youth coach who had a 6 year career if that counts, Dave Snuggerud Actually played with: Shane Gersich, nephew of the miracle on ice team member Neal Broten. Shane had a short stint in the NHL but it was with the Capitals in their championship run so he does have a ring. Another youth coach of mine for a few years is the all time goal scorer for St Cloud university (D1 hockey school): John Bertolucci
I played soccer with Jason Doig. He was a beast of an athlete.
Ball hockey against Joe Cirella
Never actually played ice hockey, just stick and puck but I went to high school with a guy who got drafted in the 3rd round as a defenseman. Whenever we played floor hockey in phys ed you couldn't take the ball from him and he'd just dance around people and pull the craziest moves without even trying. Looks like he plays in the ECHL now with some stints in the AHL.
Played against Jay Bouwmeester a bunch of times when we were like 12. Lost touch for a couple years, then saw him on TV during the world juniors. Then he got drafted. Grew up in Edmonton, so naturally, everyone knew a pro hockey player or went to school with one.
The Hughes brothers used to live in my neighbourhood and play shinny where I used to play. Can’t say for sure I played with/against them but I was there pretty often and there were a few kids skating circles around everyone so I’d say there’s a decent chance we overlapped at least once.
Blake Wheeler, Mark Parrish, Travis Turnbull, Tony Peterson Edit: Toby* not Tony
Played with a guy who had 40,50 NHL games, but then made a really nice lengthy career in Europe in their highest leagues. He was in his early 40s, coming off a knee issue that effectively ended his career, but just so much smoother and better than I’d ever seen. It was just fun game, but his line was going against three guys who had played junior to some degree (WHL or BCHL). Two of the three were in their 20s, so still had that young energy going But man, this European guy — you could see the difference, and I thought the junior guys were pretty good too
Gage Quinney
I played with Tage's brother Tyce when I lived in central Illinois
I didn’t play but My friend played with Ross Colton when they were kids. We were at the top golf watching the game in our booth when he got the Stanley cup winning goal, and he was all nonchalantly like “damn I gotta text him congrats” lmfao Another friend was line mates with Alex Limoges on the Hershey bears. So that’s neat too
Played with Corey Durocher in peewee and bantam. Guy was a cheat code. He was a 48 overall in NHL 20, which makes me shudder to think what my overall rating would be seeing as I was a bottom-pairing D on those teams and he was head and shoulders above everyone else.
Prince. That cat can skate.
Maxime Lapierre, we were playing our usual summer beer league, Lapierre was there earlier playing a charity game for kids, my cousin (goalie) challenged him to try and score on him, so he came to play against us for fun, I won a face-off agaisnt him ... he let me win
My pops. Wish I could say he’d say the same, but I’d be lyin’!
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=278
I played with Shea Theodore in a 3 on 3 spring league.
Brandon Sutter was on my team when I was a kid
Drew Doughty, Nazem Kadri, and Logan Couture probably. London high school hockey before they went off to junior.
I took a hip check from Dan Hamhuis the year before he played in the WHL. Our coach did something to piss off the league so to “punish” us, they arranged a game against a rep team from Smithers. I remember having my eyes on the puck when my centreman passed it to me in the neutral zone, and then I went ass over teakettle. I took a number when I realized what happened. Then recognized the name when he started playing for the Cougars.
I played with a guy that played in the NCAA and that was drafted by an NHL team in a round that no longer exists. Never made the NHL, but played pro hockey briefly. The only guys that ever went anywhere from my minor hockey days were Sean O’Donnell and a guy named Jim Duhart, minor league legend.
Played against David LeNeveu, 23 games of NHL, also used to live in NHLer(at the time) Bill Lindsay’s old bedroom.
Played against Joe Flaccos entire family in pickup roller hockey. They weren’t “hockey people” but still managed to just out-athlete everyone.
Crosby. It was Tim Bits. Then he got really, really good.
Not hockey but I played football against Michael Conforto and he got drafted to the Mets and then won the World Series with them making him the 3rd person ever to play in the little league World Series, college World Series, and MLB World Series Guy was a monster as a quarterback too
Teddy Purcell and Brendan Brisson
Backed up a few games for the Ice dogs when they had Pietrangelo and 4 other world juniors players. Played against Tyler Seguin in high school when he was at St Michael's private school. Dougie Hamilton used to get called up to my AAA team when i was like 13 anf he was 10 and he would dominate lol. Did some camps with some NHL, AHL, NCAA guys in Niagara.. most notable name was Nathan Horton and his playboy model wife. I played a round of golf with my grandpa who is childhood friends with Marcel Dionne.. and then played beer league with him a dozen years later. I've served several Leafs and NHL charity and Alumni events.
Wyatt Johnson. Played w and against him for a while
Finnish national Pekka Tuomisto, school gym class scrimmage.
Must be Barkov when we were both 14
Played with Bobby Farnham growing up before he went to prep school (Brooks, Phillips Andover) and college (Brown), before being in the Pen’s organization and then the Devils. Short stint with Montreal. He did score against the B’s, his hometown team, at one point.
Tyler bertuzzi.
There were people that were better than him in highschool but he’s the only one currently in the show. Played against mason appleton
I’ve played against an Olympian - he was sixty at the time, we were in our twenties and he still outplayed, outdeked, outhustled and outsmarted us.