Where have all the great NHL nicknames gone? We polled some of the Ottawa Senators to find out what their nicknames are and what they call other guys in the room.
There are hockey nicknames that stand the test of time: The Great One, Mr. Hockey, Sid the Kid, McJesus (Connor McDavid) and The Flower.
These are some of the nicknames fans have given their favourite players, but their favourite players often have different nicknames within the locker room and on the ice. And given the speed of the game, the names need to be short and direct.
For example, Wayne Gretzky's teammates called him “Gretz,” because no teammate on the ice is going to yell, “Hey, The Great One! Pass the puck!”
There's always a story behind the best nicknames, and the Ottawa Senators have a bunch of good ones.
“Usually every hockey nickname is just the last name with an 's' or 'er' at the end,” said centre Shane Pinto.
Like many of his teammates, Pinto has had his fair share of nicknames.
“My nickname is Pints or Pinner,” said Pinto. “Pints is quicker and easier to say; Giroux is always yelling at me, ‘Pints’.
"But there are exceptions to the 's' or 'er' rule," said Pinto. "At the University of North Dakota, I was Beans – like Pinto Beans. I wanted that out of there. I don't like that. I think we went to Chipotle one day and saw ‘Pinto Beans’ and that was it.”
Pinto’s teammate, Drake Batherson, picked his own nickname. He didn’t have a nickname growing up, but he wanted one.
Batherson was 16 and watching a Don Cherry documentary. The former Boston head coach kept yelling out to one of his forwards, Bobby Schmautz. Batherson recalls becoming intrigued by Cherry’s nickname for his fiery winger.
“Cherry kept calling him, 'Schmautzy,'" said Batherson. "I was playing junior at the time and I didn't really have a nickname. And I just told the boys to start calling me 'Schmautzy' or 'Bobby' and then the rest is history.”
Batherson wanted to keep his nickname of 'Bobby' when he left junior hockey.
“I remember my first-year pro. Guys asked me, what do we call you? I just said Bobby,” said Batherson. “And the guys [asked] what's the story behind that? And then I told them. I’ve kind of gotten away with it. I don't think many people have a self-proclaimed nickname.”
However, not every Senator teammate calls him Bobby.
“Drake? I call him Drizzy,” said Mathieu Joseph, referencing the nickname of Drake, the Canadian rapper and singer. “I mean personally for me I like to call some guys by a little different nickname.”
Joseph and Thomas Chabot are francophones from Quebec, where Chabot says hockey nicknames are less common. Neither had a nickname until they reached junior hockey together for the Saint John Sea Dogs.
“I guess being around anglophones, ‘Chabby’ sounded good,” said Chabot, “I like it. So, I went along with it.”
Likewise for Joseph. He was called “Joe” by Chabot and the other French players. But in the NHL, it’s been “Matty.”
Sometimes in the NHL, your heritage matters. Plenty of the Senators had fathers who played in the league.
“My dad was "Sandy" when he played; all my brothers are Sandy,” said defenceman Jake Sanderson. “Nobody ever really calls me Jake at the rink. If I ever hear that I'm probably not turning my head.”
From one Jake to another, Jakob Chychrun’s father, Jeff, played in the NHL so he rolls with his father’s nickname of “Chych”.
“All my hockey buddies started calling me that at a young age. All my dad's friends still call him that,” said Chychrun.
Nevertheless, when both ‘Chychs’ are around, there needs to be a delineation between father and son.
“Big Chych and little Chych,” said Chychrun with a chuckle.
Some players have nicknames that involve a play on words. Parker Kelly is “Kels” to his NHL teammates, but had a funny name nickname in junior. It was his initials, "PK".
“I was PK on the PK (penalty kill),“ said Kelly.
Kelly calls his teammate, Ridly Greig “Rids”. Like Kelly, Greig has an excess of nicknames with some humour sprinkled in. Sometimes, a nickname is simply about the comedy of it all.
“I got multiple nicknames. Lately, it's been like Riddler,” said Greig. “Me and Sandy were watching Batman the other day, and it had the Riddler guy on it. So, I might get a hat with the question mark and (go with) the Riddler thing.”
The thing with hockey names is that (unless you're Drake Batherson) you don't choose what your nickname is. Jacob Bernard-Docker is fine with all the nicknames he's been given: JBD, Dock and Docker.
“I'm not too picky. So I go with whatever people say,” said Bernard-Docker jokingly.
Not everyone in the Senators' orbit will get a funny batman-themed nickname, especially if you're a coach. Coaches never get the same nickname treatment as players. When I asked around the dressing room what players call head coach Jacques Martin, I got the same resounding answer.
“I just call him Jacques,” said Parker Kelly.