Brett Hull's return to the St. Louis Blues as an executive vice president gives the Riverfront Times an opening to look at the former UMD Bulldog's career in the pros and his "off-the-ice personality that made him a celebrity." (That's Hull, at left, in 2012 in Dallas with Joe Nieuwendyk, center, to honor Ed Belfour, at right.)

It opens with an epic night out, one that began with a game and ended with practice the next morning and was connected by Hull's "borrowing" of then-Blues coach Bob Berry's Jaguar. Along the way, the article, focuses on how he made friends, with the nightclub security staff in the opening or with fans out at the St. Louis bars. And it's that skill set -- making friends -- that has Hull back in St. Louis. Blues ownership calls it schmoozing, in a job described as pitching to sponsors, going to public events and holding court in the corporate suites.

The story also gives a picture of a transformed NHL, in a world with cellphones and Twitter, the Blues of a few years ago were out in L.A. and holed up in their hotel ... for a video game tournament. And how a similar job for Hull with the Dallas Stars blew up, amid co-GMs, the unpredictable Sean Avery and the bankruptcy of Tom Hicks.

Of course, Hull is still "the Golden Brett. He drops an extraordinary statement for working in the Anheuser-Busch company town:

"I don't drink beer anymore because I don't get to sweat it out the next day in practice," Hull explains. "I drink martinis."