This week, when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, one of the biggest stories was about Phil Kessel showing up his critics. He was called many things by the Toronto media, but a future champion was never one of them. And he did what they thought he couldn’t.

Watching an interview of today’s NHL stars, whether it be Sidney Crosby or Jonathon Toews, or future stars like Auston Mathews or Patrick Laine, one can’t help but feel bored out of their skulls. These are smart athletes, some of the smartest in the world, and they give scripted answers, trying not to turn off fans, trying to maintain their marketability – boring marketability, but marketability none the less.

And that’s why players like Phil Kessel, players like Andrew Shaw, they find themselves becoming fan favorites and heroes. Because they aren’t boring, on the ice or off. Their personality shows through, whether its the awkward introvert in Phil Kessel or the swearing on live television, heart in every game Andrew Shaw. These guys cut through the scripted question and answer interviews between players like Crosby and Toews and interviewers like Pierre McGuire.

The NHL needs players like this to survive. It needs those with personalities, because their biggest stars come off as boring, uninteresting to the general public, and they don’t help grow the sport. For many people, the face of hockey continues to be Wayne Gretzky, who hasn’t touched ice since the 1990s.

And yet why do these other personalities, those of Crosby and Toews, continue to get promoted? Why are these boring off ice players the ones that most people know?

First, it’s their level of play. Those with boring personalities are often better players, as they focus their attention solely on hockey, and come off as uninterested in other things. Shaw is often photographed in other Chicago teams’ gear, whether it be the Cubs or the Bears, and he’s clearly a fan. That can’t be said of Jonathon Toews, who is more likely to be on the ice instead of in Wrigley Field in the offseason.

This is not to say that Shaw or Kessel aren’t as focused on hockey, but their personalities allow them to be different, to have different interests. In interviews, Toews and Crosby don’t come off this way.

So why does the NHL continue to rely on these old-school personalities? These clearly scripted answers instead of genuine personality moments?

Well for one, Gary Bettman has never been the greatest marketer. Aside from all the lockouts, his marketing of our sport is his greatest weakness. Yes, he has grown the sport, but that has always been through expansion. Instead of growing passionate fans in our existing markets, Bettman decides to grow the sport, and while that also produces fans, it will eventually weaken the quality of the sport and dilute the talent on each team.

Secondly, it’s the interviewers themselves that are denying players the chance to answer with personality, allowing their individuality to shine through. Instead of asking leading questions, interviews should be more conversational. Instead of asking how a player thought their team or the other team played – there’s only one answer “I thought they played well” – more open ended questions like “how do you feel” or “what is it like having won your second Cup, Sidney Crosby?” will promote those players and give them the ability to shine through.

When Pierre asked Phil how his breath was – an odd way to phrase the question “how is your breathing” – Phil answered genuinely, the only way he knows how, with “bad, eh?”, endearing him to fans across the League, and further pushing Pierre towards the negative side of hockey. And Phil already exists as one of the most widely beloved players in the league, and he’s just this shy guy who wants to play hockey.

There already exists a subreddit for the Phil Kessel, devoted to that personality, a somewhat joke, somewhat truth about the lack of other personality in the NHL, in r/templeofthephil. The subreddit jokes about how god-like Phil Kessel is, but also promotes content showing he’s more than what the Toronto media thought of him. That it doesn’t matter what Steve Simmons and other lesser writers think or make fun of him for – that hot dog story was bullshit.

It’s not just fan favorites like Phil Kessel and Andrew Shaw that are displays of what it means to have a personality in the NHL – look at the story of John Scott this year, who accepted his joke nomination with pride and fought for his all star captaincy, eventually becoming All Star MVP. His writing in the player’s tribune and his willingness to go along with everything that was handed to him endeared him to the fanbase, and gave the All Star Game a purpose. He went from a grinder, a fighter, to one of the most widely liked/loved players in the game.

And being one of the top 10 players doesn’t mean being boring. Every chance he gets, Alexander Ovechkin shows even the biggest faces of the NHL can be weird, can be emotional, can have genuine personalities. Ovechkin is by far the best player with an established personality, and even he is sometimes force-fed one line answer questions, sometimes forced into corners by interviewers. This is one of the voices the NHL should be promoting most, and instead they want him to be the boring, singular focused entities they’ve made the on-ice personas of Toews and Crosby into.

The NHL needs a new face to continue to grow the sport. In a few years, the majority of the fan base won’t have been alive to see Wayne Gretzky play. We can’t keep relying on boring, scripted players to be the shining light of the NHL, and we have to look at the personalities in other sports – the Cam Newtons, the Russell Westbrooks and Steph Currys, the Mike Trouts and full of themselves Byrce Harpers – as well as personalities within our own league as examples of how to have personality in sports. The personality of players is beginning to matter more and more, and the personalities in charge cannot be boring for much longer. Establishing a new face for this decade will be important, and why can’t that face be awkward and introverted?