HOW JOËL TEASDALE BECAME “SHOOTER MCTEASER”
Mar 5, 2024In hockey, teammate nicknames tend to follow a pattern. Depending on the final letter of a player’s name, teammates will frequently add an –er, -s, or –y when addressing them.
The Iowa Wild dressing room is no different. Gavin Hain is known as “Hainer.” Caedan Bankier (“Banks”), Kevin Conley (“Cons”), Steven Fogarty (“Foges”), and Nick Swaney (“Swanes”), each received the –s suffix. Several players, including Daemon Hunt (“Huntsy”), Brenden Miller (“Millsy”), Ryan O’Rourke (“Rourkey”), and Nic Petan (“Petey”) own a nickname ending with a y.
Joël Teasdale started the season as “Teaser,” the standard name dictated by the hockey formula. That changed, however, midway through the year.
“It started when Caedan Bankier came back from injury,” said Teasdale. “We would always do the 2-on-1 drill together. I would tell him, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t pass it to you, I’ll just shoot.’”
Bankier caught on quickly to Teasdale’s preference to shoot but could do little to stop his teammate from firing pucks on net.
“He would come up to me every practice and ask, ‘Are you going to be a shooter today?’” recalled Teasdale.
After several practices, Teasdale’s teammates caught wind of his propensity for shooting and a new nickname, “Shooter,” caught on. Over time, Teasdale’s new alias grew and adapted.
“The guys didn’t know where it came from, but they thought it could be from the movie (Happy Gilmore),” said Teasdale. “After that, some of the guys also started calling me ‘Shooter McTeaser.’”
Teasdale is much more relaxed than the movie villain from the 1996 comedy, but he has still found ways to incorporate Shooter McGavin’s mannerisms into his on-ice play. In recent games, he’s broken out the iconic finger gun celebration after scoring.
Teasdale hopes to break the celebration out for more goals as Iowa makes a push toward the postseason. In the meantime, he’s taped a “Shooter” label over the “Teasdale” on his game sticks to help more pucks go to their home.