Tony Twist was the heavyweight the rest of the NHL tried to avoid in the 1990s, a left wing who scored 10 goals and collected 1,121 penalty minutes for the St. Louis Blues and the Quebec Nordiques. When his playing days ended, he built a second career in the St. Louis area, close to the fans who cheered every punch. His work still involves cracks and hard impacts, but now his job is to repair them.
Where is Tony Twist now?
Tony Twist is in the auto glass business in the St. Louis area: as of November 2026, Tony Twist’s official website lists Missouri Windshield Repair & Replacement under his name with the line “Your neighborhood glass filler, on and off the ice.” The business directory Buzzfile lists Tony Twist as the company’s principal, based in Arnold, Missouri, and gives 2011 as the year it started.
| Tony Twist: then and now | |
|---|---|
| Known for | One of the most feared fighters of the 1990s |
| Position | Left wing, shoots left |
| Born | 9 May 1968, Sherwood Park, Alberta |
| Drafted | 1988, ninth round, 177th overall, St. Louis Blues |
| NHL career | 10 seasons, 445 games, St. Louis and Quebec |
| Last pro season | 1998-99, St. Louis Blues, NHL |
| Current role | Auto glass repair, Missouri Windshield Repair & Replacement, as of November 2026 |
| Also | Bare Knuckle BBQ sauce, a cooking series, appearances |
Windshields are not the only thing on his plate. The same website describes him as one of the personalities behind Bare Knuckle BBQ, a sauce brand built by former Blues players, and promotes his YouTube cooking series, Cooking in the Lou with a Twist. He takes bookings for appearances, speaking, and meet-and-greets, and the site announces a podcast and membership group called Bare Knuckle Nation.
Old fans haven’t forgotten him either. In March 2026, he returned to Carver Arena in Peoria as a member of the Rivermen Hall of Fame, and the team played that night as the Peoria Twisters, in jerseys carrying a caricature of him, according to CIProud.com.
What happened to Tony Twist’s career?
A motorcycle accident in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur in August 1999 ended Tony Twist’s playing career, CBS News reported at the time. He had just finished the 1998-99 season with a career-high 149 penalty minutes and eight points in 63 games, and he never played another NHL game.
The timing made the ending abrupt. Twist had spent the late 1990s as the Blues’ designated heavyweight, the player opponents measured themselves against, and his fight record shows how often he was called on. Stories like the one Owen Nolan tells about a single punch still circulate among former players.
Tony Twist’s draft: 177th overall and a road through Peoria
The St. Louis Blues drafted Tony Twist in the ninth round, 177th overall, in 1988, out of the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL. He turned pro with the Peoria Rivermen in the late 1980s, and Peoria still treats him as one of its own.
He played 28 games for St. Louis in 1989-90, then spent four seasons with the Quebec Nordiques, where he scored no goals in 151 games. He returned to the Blues for the 1994-95 season and stayed for five years. By then, his reputation was settled, and he has since explained where he got his fighting skills.
Tony Twist’s career in numbers: 1,121 penalty minutes
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989-90 | St. Louis | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 124 |
| 1990-91 | Quebec | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104 |
| 1991-92 | Quebec | 44 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 164 |
| 1992-93 | Quebec | 34 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 64 |
| 1993-94 | Quebec | 49 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 101 |
| 1994-95 | St. Louis | 28 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 89 |
| 1995-96 | St. Louis | 51 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 100 |
| 1996-97 | St. Louis | 64 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 121 |
| 1997-98 | St. Louis | 60 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 105 |
| 1998-99 | St. Louis | 63 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 149 |
| Total | 445 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 1,121 |
Figures are from Hockey-Reference. He added one goal and one assist in 18 playoff games.
Tony Twist’s 1,121 penalty minutes add up to 18 hours and 41 minutes in the box, or 112 penalty minutes for every goal he scored. All 10 of his NHL goals came in a Blues sweater.
Tony Twist after hockey: saloons, radio and a courtroom win
Before the glass business, Tony Twist built a second career around his name in St. Louis. He opened Twister’s Iron Bar Saloon in Imperial, Missouri, in the early 2000s, part of a small group of suburban bars and restaurants described by the Riverfront Times. The Imperial bar has since closed. He also co-hosted a radio show, Smash and Twist, on 590 The Fan in St. Louis, and appeared on Fox Sports Midwest.
His best-known fight off the ice took place in court. Comic book creator Todd McFarlane had named a mob character in Spawn Antonio “Tony Twist” Twistelli, and Twist sued over the use of his name. A $24.5 million jury award from 2000 was thrown out by the trial judge, CBC reported. A second St. Louis jury awarded him $15 million in 2004, and in 2007 he accepted a $5 million settlement, ending a dispute that had lasted nearly a decade.
He also stayed close to the team. In April 2024, he was among the Blues alumni at a Puck Cancer charity game, according to the Blues. His knockout at a stop sign in full hockey gear is a story Blues fans still retell, and the Blues play on in a city where our guide covers how to watch the St. Louis Blues.
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