Former National Hockey League enforcer Pat Maroon may not be in the league anymore after retiring at the end of the 2024-25 regular season, but that doesn't mean he still doesn't occasionally get the itch to throw hands.
Recently, Maroon was a guest on the Nashcast hosted by former NHL forward Tyson Nash and it was during his appearance there that he was asked about any potentially unfinished business he felt he had in the NHL. Maroon would go on to name two players that he would love to get his hands around, albeit for two very different reasons.
The first man named by Maroon was Montreal Canadiens enforcer Arber Xhekaj and this one seemed to be purely motivated by a desire for revenge. Maroon acknowledged that Xhekaj got the better of him in their previous meetings while he was still active in the NHL and you could tell that Maroon very much would like to get his shot at one last rematch.
"Xhekaj, I want him bad," admitted Maroon. "Both my fights I had against him were f***ing horrible."
It sounds like the celebration from Xhekaj after the fact also rubbed the former NHL enforcer the wrong way.
"He did the old raise the roof in Montreal," said Maroon. "And then I fought him when I was in Chicago and I always got a bad grip on him."
This was their first encounter in Montreal:
And the second time around in Chicago:
There is another man that Maroon may want even more than Xhekaj however, although for entirely different reasons. That man is Brandon Montour and Maroon admitted that there is a world in which he would love to tear Montour apart.
"Montour is a guy that always chirped me, and I took a suspension on him," said Maroon. "I'm sure he's a really good guy but I would love to rip his head off. Drove me f***ing nuts, always chirped me. From the bench and then I would get out there he's still yapping. I literally chased him around the ice and they suspended me."
It doesn't sound like Montour said anything that unnerved Maroon in any particular way, but rather the relentlessness with which he delivered his chirps that eventually grinded the big man's patience down.
"It wasn't just once it was all the time," said Maroon. "He wouldn't shut up in three periods. I was like 'Damn, I'm gonna kill this kid.'"
Maroon once again reiterated his desire to tear Montour to bits.
"But that's one guy I would love to rip his head off," said the former enforcer.
If you've never witnessed the interactions between Montour and Maroon, here is just one example of Montour's relentless chirping resulting in an explosion from Maroon.
You can hear Maroon talk about both players in the short clip below:
