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NASHVILLE — Even though there are young futures on the line and front office jobs at stake, it’s not all business at the NHL draft. There’s room for lighter moments.
Here are four that Chicago Blackhawks players and executives had during two days in Nashville.
1. Kyle Davidson — aka, backward hat guy — goes viral.
Penalty Box Radio was conducting man-on-the-street interviews in Nashville when they stopped Davidson to ask about the NHL draft.
Interviewer Alex Daugherty didn’t know “Kyle from Chicago” was actually the Blackhawks general manager, so the exchange was comedy gold.
He was asked on a scale from one to 10, how much did he know about hockey?
“I didn’t play professionally, so probably like a four,” Davidson deadpanned. “Fan of the sport. I don’t know, some people say I don’t know that much.”
Davidson was asked to name some hockey players and he rattled off a list that was heavy on Hawks — except front office adviser Brian Campbell. “I actually intentionally left him out,” he told reporters later.
Then when Davidson was asked whether he thought the May 8 draft lottery was rigged in Hawks’ favor to plant Connor Bedard in big-city Chicago (a popular theory on social media), he shot back, “No.”
“Pretty confident,” the interviewer replied.
“I’m very confident,” said Davidson, mugging at the camera.
All parties insist this was real and not a put-on set up by the Hawks.
“Folks ... I had no idea who this man was. And it ended up being the GM of the Blackhawks,” Daugherty tweeted.
To be fair to Daugherty, Davidson was wearing a backward baseball cap and a T-shirt, with his arms folded like he was generally unfazed. To be really fair, there are some Chicagoans who might not recognize Davidson wearing a Hawks jersey on Madison Street outside the United Center.
Davidson recounted the moment.
“I was just walking down Broadway (with associate general manager Jeff Greenberg). Trying to get out of the hotel, get out of those four walls we’ve been cooped up in the last couple of days,” he said. “They had asked me if I wanted to interview and I was like, ‘No thanks.’”
But then Davidson thought about it and told Greenberg, ”‘It’s funny, they have no clue who we are, what we do.’ I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to go back.’”
Davidson waited on two fans — wearing Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad jerseys — to finish.
“They didn’t recognize me, either,” he said. “It was probably the backward hat or freshly shaven face. Maybe I looked a little younger.”
As soon as Davidson got through his interview, he tried to let Daugherty in on the joke.
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“I said, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m the GM of the Chicago Blackhawks’ and I think he just gave me a sideways look, like, ‘Yeah, whatever buddy.’ They probably just looked me up afterward and realized it was me. I wasn’t lying.”
The video, posted Wednesday afternoon, had racked up 6.6 million views by Thursday evening.
New Hawks draft pick Nick Lardis was impressed. “I saw that (video), that was pretty funny,” he said. “Even talking with him in the combine, we had good laughs.”
But a budding viral star has no honor in his own home.
“Ask my wife, she doesn’t think I’m that funny,” Davidson said. “I always tell her that I’m funnier than you think I am.”
And Davidson’s scouting chief, Mike Doneghey, just smirked when asked about it.
“It made its way to our meeting room after it happened,” he said. “A lot of people were asking if it was a setup or if it was fake. He’s sticking to the story, it’s real. Hey, he’s got a good poker face.”
2. Connor Bedard puts the ‘athlete’ in athleisure.
As Parade magazine noted in a recent article, “Lululemon is a fave of celeb, influencers, and cool soccer moms alike.” And hockey players?
The company announcement Tuesday of Bedard as its newest hockey ambassador turned some heads, so Bedard was asked how Lululemon became his “product of choice.”
“I have a lot. I really like the shorts,” he said. “My sister (Madisen) works there, so we’ve got some good discounts, so now it’ll be a little better maybe.”
3. Martin Misiak experiences a great American smokeout of sorts.
Misiak plays an indoor sport, but that didn’t spare him from being affected by smoke from the Canadian wildfires, which has blotted skies in New York City and much of the Northeast and Midwest.
“Travel has been hard,” said 18-year-old Misiak, who spoke to Chicago reporters after his selection by the Hawks in the second round. “We were flying from Vienna to New York, and in New York they canceled like 140 flights.
“We had to rent a car and drive 15 hours from New York here to Nashville,” the host site of this year’s NHL draft, the Slovakian forward said.
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At least he didn’t have to share in the driving.
“I didn’t have my license yet, so I was just chilling in the back seat, watching movies.”
4. Make way for ‘The Worm’ — and it’s not Dennis Rodman.
Corey Perry has come to be hated by many a fan base during his 18 years in the league.
He’s certainly regarded as a dirty player in Chicago.
In 2014, there was the former Duck’s infamous cheap shot cross-check into Marian Hossa’s back that dropped Hossa to his knees.
In April 2017, Perry, still with the Ducks, slashed then-Hawk Ryan Hartman in the right arm — after the whistle — causing Hartman to briefly exit the game.
Chicago Tribune Sports
But the Hawks brought Perry into the fold Thursday after acquiring him from Tampa Bay for a 2024 seventh-round pick. He signed a one-year, $4 million deal Friday.
The irony of pursuing a former Hawks antagonist is not lost on Davidson.
“Probably a guy you hate to play against, you love to have on your team,” Davidson said. “That’s how we hope it’ll play out.”
Believe it or not, Davidson thinks Perry can bring leadership to the locker room.
“Similar to (new acquisition) Nick Foligno, amazing veteran presence,” Davidson said. “Been in the league quite some time, knows what it takes to win, knows how to be a great professional and then also has some background and some history with our head coach (Luke Richardson).
“So we’re going to try to extract some of that benefit as well.”