Getty
Brett Hull’s Story on Meeting Red Wings Teammate Chris Chelios
Brett Hull reflected on meeting his former Detroit Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios. Hull recalled the meeting taking place during his first NHL game, which was Game 3 of the 1986 Stanley Cup finals.
The game placed both players in the middle of chaos. Hull was a rookie with the Calgary Flames. Chelios, meanwhile, was a defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens.
Tensions reached a breaking point, as a bench-clearing brawl erupted. Hull, not known for being a fighter, was admittedly out of his element. He recalled Chelios going towards him, but it was not to fight.
Brett Hull and Chris Chelios Didn’t Fight Each Other
Although a bench-clearing brawl ensued and Brett Hull and Chris Chelios came together, they did not fight each other. Instead, Chelios had an encounter with Hull’s teammate, Paul Baxter.
During an episode of his Ice Guardians Podcast, Hull said he would not have fared well. Chelios, a Chicago native, knew Hull’s father, Bobby, who was a Chicago Blackhawks legend. Because of that, the Canadiens defenseman didn’t want to fight the Flames forward in his first NHL game.
“I’m standing there and all of a sudden, there’s me and [Chelios] and obviously, I think he came over to me because, you know, my dad and the Blackhawks history,” Hull said on his Ice Guardians Podcast. “I was in good hands because he wasn’t going to do anything to me and I would have been like shaking a baby. I’d never been in a fight. I still never been in a fight my whole life.”
He added:
“Baxter came from behind over my shoulder and suckered [Chelios]. And I was just like, ‘Oh, that’s the cheapest [expletive] I’ve ever seen.’ I thought it was [expletive] to do to me,” Hull said. “I just let them go and [Chelios] ended up beating the [expletive] out of Baxter and that was the first time we had met.”
Chelios’ Canadiens ultimately defeated the Flames in five games to win the Stanley Cup. Hull’s time in Calgary was short, as he was traded to the St. Louis Blues midway through the 1987-88 season.
How Long Were Hull and Chelios Red Wings Teammates?
Hull and Chelios spent three seasons together as teammate on the Red Wings. At the time, Detroit was signing veteran players toward the end of their careers for one final Stanley Cup push.
Hull credited Chelios as a major reason he signed with the Red Wings after receiving strong interest from the Montreal Canadiens. They hoisted the Stanley Cup in their first season together as teammates in 2002. That team is considered one of the greatest ever assembled in NHL history due to the number of Hall of Famers.
Although he was at the later stage of his career, Hull was still a very important player for Detroit. He finished among their top goal scorers in each of the three season he played for the Red Wings.
Chelios, meanwhile, two years older than Hull, still had plenty of hockey left. He went on to play through the 2009-10 season, retiring at 48-years-old.
Giancarlo Aulino Giancarlo Aulino is sports writer who covers UFC for Heavy.com. He began writing for Heavy in 2025 after providing MMA coverage for Sportskeeda. Giancarlo is an experienced journalist and interviewer, having covered soccer clubs Toronto FC and York United FC as a full-season reporter, and also producing sports coverage for Toronto radio station VIBE 105.5FM.
More about Giancarlo Aulino
More Heavy on Red Wings
Loading more stories