Former Coyotes player and current podcaster and NHL analyst Paul Bissonnette didn’t go looking for trouble while out to dinner last weekend. But he still found problems.
On November 24, while dining at Houston’s, a family restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bissonnette was attacked by six men in an altercation that spilled out of the restaurant and eventually ended in the CVS parking lot next door.
“There was an altercation at the restaurant involving six adult males and management,” said Scottsdale Police Sgt. said Allison Sempsis. “Paul Bissonnette reportedly tried to help management calm the men down and get them to leave. The situation escalated to the men assaulting Paul Bissonnette both inside and outside 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 to the staff. He said he became involved when he saw one of the men in a group begin making physical contact with the restaurant manager.
“The bar where I normally sit was packed. I was sitting in the dining room and at one point there was some commotion in the bar. It was a bunch of drunk golfers. Things clearly continued to escalate. She asked a man to leave , and then a man kept getting in the manager’s face and putting his hands on him,” Bissonnette said.
When Bissonnette saw that the manager was vastly outnumbered, he stood up to help. He says he told the men: “Sir, if you continue to harass and abuse the staff, we will have problems.”
Things quickly escalated from there. As Bissonnette put it, “They just started laughing.”
“I got knocked down a few times. Luckily I didn’t pass out. I did go to the hospital, so that’s probably what everyone reads about.”
“Everything’s fine guys, it sucks,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Bissonnette, 39, spent six seasons in the NHL and played one year for the Pittsburgh Penguins before being claimed off waivers by the Phoenix Coyotes. He played for them until 2014, 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 during the offseason.
