Paul Holmgren

him and how much that helped him early in his career.

That was, you know, Paul Holmgren and I had talked about it in Hartford, and I went to Beast and said, hey, can you do me a favor? And he said, absolutely, not a problem.

You've got to have those mentorship-type guys.

I think Chicago needs more of those guys.

But also try to instill a lot of fear and ruin their game.

um goal scorers and so with that if i can say and i wrote this in my book um there's lots of ways to be tough and you know fighting and winning and beating up the other guys is a great way um but a I've said this many times, Paul Holmgren with the Flyers, tough as nails.

I don't think a great fighter, but he was tough as nails.

He would run over guys and run over guys.

Yeah.

I'll say what I will about Paul Holmgren, but you'd be gone.

You'd be gone by this point.

You should.

anyone.

I almost went toe-to-toe with Paul Holmgren in a parking lot.

Is that right?

Oh, yeah.

Maybe.

um maybe i just uh play hockey and uh and at the beginning of the season paul holmgren one of the first few games we're going to boston paul holmgren pulled me aside and he said you know we had a tough time with boston we've got to reassert our physicality and he said listen you know if you don't fight make sure you hold on to someone you have to at least hold on to someone and uh i told paul i said i don't know if i can win a fight i don't know if i can win a fight but i'll fight and i laughing to myself because you know that's how i got on the ice in junior hockey right that's that's what i that's what i did and uh Um, it wasn't too long in the game.

John Winsink absolutely ran me through the glass and, uh, and, and my, in my, in my days, my days of a pacifist of a pacifist were over and, uh, And, you know, it's just the way it was.

So you never know.

And I actually wrote in my book, and just jumping around a little bit, but there's lots of ways to be tough.

There's the good fighters.

Paul Holmgren was tough as... can be not a great fighter, good fighter, not a great fighter, but he didn't care.

He was going to steamroll guys left, right, and center.

It depends on the the parties involved.

I found guys like Paul Holmgren, I found it very easy to do deals with Paul.

We quickly arrived at, we had a deal or there isn't one to be made, so we'll move on.

When you're a rookie general manager, like we're all watching Sonny Mehta's first season as general manager of the New Jersey Devils, harder to do a deal in your first year, obviously, than it is when you're a few years in, or is it all just the same right now? I think

We all do.

He's got hockey sets, you know? And then as it, as it turns out, you said, I think he's going to get drafted and Paul Holmgren drafted him in Philadelphia.

And so as years go on, you know, you see this, this, you know, how he evolved.

And that's why I'm excited to work with Pat because he, he's got a, you know, he's, he's just, he's an everyday person.