Hockey Exec Paul Henry Eyed Hischier, Meier for QMJHL | PROSPECT WATCH

There is nothing quite like getting a long-time hockey person talking.
Like Paul Henry. He's made two livings; one as a psychologist in Canada's prison system, the other as a hockey executive. He's held senior roles with the Florida Panthers (when both Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald and head coach Lindy Ruff were there), New York Rangers, and Hockey Canada.
To give you a sense of the breadth of people that Henry knows, he was good friends with Herb Brooks and was a pallbearer at his funeral. He could be seen recently chatting with Devils prospect Nolan Foote after an American Hockey League game in Toronto; when Utica Comets coach Kevin Dineen strode by, he deferred to Henry so as not to interrupt the conversation.
"Would never interrupt you talking to my young guys," quipped Dineen.
Now semi-retired, if watching a couple of hundred hockey games in person every season can be called that, Henry dabbles in helping a few Canadian major junior teams find import players. He knows the nooks and crannies of European hockey just as well as he does the highways and slip-roads in and around Toronto, where he grew up. Henry now lives about 90 minutes north of Canada's biggest city.
Two such players Henry helped come to North America as teenagers are Timo Meier and Nico Hischier. That's because one of the clubs Henry works for is the Halifax Mooseheads, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team that both Meier and Hischier were playing for when they were drafted into the NHL.

Though perhaps not quite as intriguing as a John Le Carre novel, the story behind finding Meier a decade ago had an element of cloak-and-dagger to it.
"It was a U17 game between the Czechs and the Swiss during a break in the schedule," explained Henry, "I was there to watch two Czech players but Timo was the best player, he just got stoned by the Czech goalie. The Czechs won 4-0, the guys I was watching each got two-and-two (goals and assists).
"But the next game, he came back and scored short-handed, even strength, and on the power-play, I think…but that wasn't the most interesting part, I was at a Swiss league game that night (in-between) and asked around and no one had even heard of Timo."
Ten years later, Meier was the most sought-after player at the NHL trade deadline - the anonymity is gone.
Meier was picked by the Mooseheads in the 2013 Canadian Hockey League import draft. The team also got Nikolaj Ehlers that year and both Meier and the now-Winnipeg Jets forward played together for two years for the Mooseheads before Ehlers departed for the NHL. Meier followed him to the big leagues a year later, vacating the import spot that Hischier took for a single season in Halifax before he was picked No. 1 overall by the Devils in the 2017 NHL Draft.
With now four Swiss on the roster - captain Hischier, Meier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Akira Schmid - Devils management clearly has an affinity for Swiss players; but it would be hard to find someone who loves the country and its people more than Henry.
"My dream is to see Nico and Timo play together on the same line with Attilio Biasca in the NHL," said Henry, referring to the two current Devils and the current Mooseheads captain, who turns 20 next week.
Hischier was less of a hidden gem than Meier but Henry and Mooseheads GM Cam Russell, the former NHL defenseman, still had to navigate some twists and turns to get him to North America.
"Cam and I met with Nico and his dad to get him here," recalled Henry, "they are just a fantastic family."
"(Former owner) Bobby Smith allowed us to do it and (then Mooseheads head coach) Andre Tourigny is a fantastic coach, we made it happen.
Smith is the former NHL star forward who won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens. Tourigny coached the Mooseheads for just a single season, Hischier's time with the club, and soon left for the Ottawa 67's, where he had current Devil Kevin Bahl, and prospects Graeme Clarke and Nikita Okhotiuk play for him.
Okhotiuk, of course, was part of the package that went the other way to San Jose in the Meier trade.
Tourigny is now the head coach of the Arizona Coyotes.
As far as Hischier's family goes, Henry was referring to Hischier's older brother, Luca, a longtime pro in the Swiss league, and his father, Rino, who was a professional soccer player. The Hischier boys and their sister, Nina, were raised in a part of Switzerland not far from the Italian border and one that is particularly known - even by Swiss standards - as an alpine hotspot. Kids who are good athletes have options and many of them don't involve a hockey stick.
"Nico is such a talented person and human being, he could have been anything he wanted to be," said Henry.
It's safe to say that Devils fans are happy their captain choose to become a hockey player.