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Mark Messier is one of the most legendary hockey players of all time; a 16-time All-Star who helped the Oilers win five Stanley Cups before securing another one with the Rangers to bring the team’s 54-year championship drought to an end. His stellar play made him an incredibly beloved figure in New York City, and he apparently used that reputation to mess with opposing players by denying them access to a famous nightclub.
I’m going to assume most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with the NYC nightlife scene in the early 1990s, but during that time, China Club on the Upper East Side was the place to be thanks to the incredibly notable names who routinely flocked to the incredibly exclusive venue on 75th St.
If you were lucky enough to make it past the bouncers guarding the door, there was a good chance you’d get to see a famous musician performing to a crowd filled with famous actors, models, and, of course, athletes.
However, if you were a member of an NHL team that was in town to face off against the Rangers, you faced an uphill battle courtesy of the man known as “The Messiah.”
Mark Messier messed with NHL players by telling bouncers to deny them access to the China Club
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Messier publically demanded a trade from Edmonton prior to the start of the 1991-92 NHL season, and he got his wish went he was shipped off to the Rangers the day after they played their first game of the year.
He wasted no time picking up where he left off, as he scored 35 goals and racked up 72 assists en route to securing the second Hart Trophy of his career by cementing himself as the Most Valuable Player on a Presidents’ Trophy team that had a 50-25-5 record.
There are plenty of perks that come with being a member of New York City sports royalty, and Messier took full advantage of that status by frequently holding court at the China Club. His teammates were also able to take advantage—including Nick Kypreos, who had a bit of trouble getting in when he was playing for the Washington Capitals and eventually figured out why after he was traded to the Rangers.
Kypreos said that before he was shipped off to New York, he headed to the China Club with some other Capitals players who were told to wait outside by the doorman. They stood there for an hour before pooling together $500 to grease the bouncer’s palms but were still forced to wait another 30 minutes before they were finally granted access.
A couple of years later, Kypreos was back inside the China Club with Messier and got to witness a truly incredible interaction, saying:
“We’re sitting around the table. The same bouncer comes down and he says, ‘Moose, I got the St. Louis Blues outside.’
[Messier] looks at his watch and he goes, ‘Another 40 minutes.”
What a flex.