Former Canadien Chris Nilan gets married in Hawaii (2024)

Former Canadien Chris Nilan and his longtime girlfriend Jaime Holtz got married Thursday in Hawaii, where Holtz was born and raised.

“After 15 yrs together, J and I finally tired the knot-absolutely perfect wedding,” Nilan wrote on his X account along with a wedding photo.

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Nilan and Holtz met in Oregon and they have called Montreal home for the last 13 years.

Nilan played 13 seasons in the NHL, including 10 in Montreal, and was part of the Canadiens’ Stanley Cup team in 1986. The 66-year-old Boston native still holds the Canadiens record for most career penalty minutes with 2,248 and earned the nickname “Knuckles” for his willingness to drop the gloves and fight to defend teammates. Lyle Odelein ranks second on the Canadiens’ list for career penalty minutes with 1,367.

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Nilan was much more than just a tough guy. During the 1984-85 season he scored 21 goals while also accumulating 358 penalty minutes, a single-season record for the Canadiens.

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Holtz knew nothing about Nilan the hockey player when they first met.

“When I met Chris, I knew absolutely nothing about hockey,” Holtz said five years ago during an interview for a “My Montreal” feature in The Gazette on Nilan. “I was born and raised in Kona, Hawaii, and hockey is not big at all there. So I remember after I knew him a little while I asked him what he did for a living. He said: ‘I used to play hockey’ and the conversation ended there. I didn’t think anything of it until about a year later we came up here to visit and we walked around Montreal and I learned pretty quick exactly what he did.

“Honestly, we can’t go anywhere without somebody recognizing him and saying hello,” Holtz added. “I even started getting stopped in the grocery store a couple of times and people would say: ‘Are you Chris’s girlfriend?’ ”

Now she’s his wife.

Holtz was asked what people might be surprised to know about Nilan.

“Honestly, the thing about Chris I think that a lot of people might find surprising is that yes, on the exterior and to people who don’t know him, he comes across as pretty intimidating and a tough guy,” she said. “But he is honestly the biggest softy of anyone I’ve ever met. To see him with the dogs (they had two at the time, but only Adele, a St. Bernard, remains after Bodhi passed away in 2022), he’s just got the biggest soft spot for a lot of things. He’s a very sensitive person. I found that surprising when I first met him.

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“To me, I think it’s a good balance of being a tough guy that you know is going to protect the people that he loves and cares about,” Holtz added. “He doesn’t take crap from anybody. So you know he’s going to be there for the people that he loves but, at the same time, he’s got that balance of that other side to him. ”Nilan was a panellist this season on The Gazette’s Hockey Inside/Out Show along with former Canadiens teammate Rick Green and he also hosts The Raw Knuckles Podcast. He also works as a team ambassador with the Canadiens.

scowan@postmedia.com

x.com/StuCowan1

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