 Known as an outspoken player, Hull earned a reputation on and off the ice for speaking bluntly and without regard for whom it might offend. He chastised his own fans in 1992 – later backtracking – when they booed Adam Oates following Oates'trade request, calling them "losers" and stating he wanted to rip one particular fan's head off. Hull was a consistent critic of the NHL's defensive, "clutch and grab" era of the late 1990s, raising the ire of commissioner Gary Bettman in 1998 when he said "I wouldn't pay to watch. It's boring. The whole style of the game is terrible. There's no flow. When a guy like [Mario] Lemieux leaves the game and tells you why he's leaving, and you don't address it, that's stupid. But the players don't say crap. That's why I always look like the big mouth."
