"My job is to suggest and ratify and use any expertise that I might have gained over the 23 years in professional hockey to make our game a better game"
About this Quote
There is a practiced humility in Hull's framing: "suggest and ratify" is committee language, the kind you use when you want influence without sounding power-hungry. He isn't claiming to run the sport; he's positioning himself as a seasoned hand in the room, a legitimacy machine. "Ratify" especially does work here, implying that decisions may already be in motion and his role is to bless them with the stamp of someone who paid the price on the ice. It's power expressed as service, a common move for retired stars trying to translate fame into governance without triggering backlash.
The phrase "any expertise that I might have gained" is another softener. Of course he has expertise - 23 years in professional hockey is an argument in itself - but the modest hedge keeps the focus on the mission: "make our game a better game". The double use of "game" is telling. It's not about contracts, owners, or labor fights; it's the sport as an almost moral object, something you improve for its own sake and for the people who love it.
Context matters because Hull sits at a crossroads of hockey history: an era when players began to leverage celebrity into institutional clout, and when the business of hockey was modernizing fast. The subtext is a negotiation between generations. He's saying: let the suits build the future, but don't do it without someone who knows what it costs to play.
The phrase "any expertise that I might have gained" is another softener. Of course he has expertise - 23 years in professional hockey is an argument in itself - but the modest hedge keeps the focus on the mission: "make our game a better game". The double use of "game" is telling. It's not about contracts, owners, or labor fights; it's the sport as an almost moral object, something you improve for its own sake and for the people who love it.
Context matters because Hull sits at a crossroads of hockey history: an era when players began to leverage celebrity into institutional clout, and when the business of hockey was modernizing fast. The subtext is a negotiation between generations. He's saying: let the suits build the future, but don't do it without someone who knows what it costs to play.
Quote Details
| Topic | Coaching |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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