Former Coyotes player and current podcaster and NHL analyst Paul Bissonnette didn’t go looking for trouble while he was dining out last weekend. But he found trouble anyway.
On Nov. 24, while eating at Houston’s, a family restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz., Bissonnette was assaulted by six men in an altercation that spilled out of the restaurant and eventually ended at the CVS parking lot next door.
“There was an altercation inside the restaurant with six adult men and the management,” Scottsdale Police Sgt. Allison Sempsis said. “Reportedly, Paul Bissonnette tried to help management calm the men and get them to leave. The situation escalated to the men assaulting Paul Bissonnette both inside and outside of the restaurant.”
Bissonnette confirmed the police statement on Monday in a video he posted on X.
Bissonnette said he is a regular at Houston’s, eating there several times a week, and is friendly with the staff. He said he got involved when he saw one of the men in a group begin to get physical with the restaurant manager.
“The bar where I normally sit was packed. I sat in the dining area, and at one point, there was a bit of a ruckus going on in the bar. It was a bunch of drunk golfers. Things obviously continued to escalate. They asked one guy to leave, and then one guy kept getting in the manager’s face, put his hands on ’em,” Bissonnette said.
Seeing that the manager was vastly outnumbered, Bissonnette got up to help. He told says he told the men: “Sir, if you continue to harass and assault the staff, we’re going to have problems.”
It escalated quickly from there. As Bissonnette put it, “they just started chuckin’.”
“Got taken down a couple times. Luckily, didn’t get knocked out. I did go to the hospital, so that’s probably what everybody is reading about.”
“All is good guys, it sucks,” he said. “Could have been a lot worse.”
Bissonnette, 39, spent six seasons in the NHL, playing one year for the Pittsburgh Penguins before being claimed off waivers by the Phoenix Coyotes. He played for them until 2014, which is when they changed their name to the Arizona Coyotes. They are currently known as the Utah Hockey Club due to their move to Salt Lake City over the offseason.