Former NHL agitator Sean Avery has a hard time seeing anyone like him in the current cast of hockey’s superstars.

Appearing on CTV’s Your Morning Tuesday, the controversial retired hockey player called today’s NHL players “very vanilla.”

“The guys are all very similar,” he said. “I think the people are boring. The game’s not boring.”

Avery‘s new memoir “Offside: My life crossing the line” officially hit store shelves on Tuesday. In the book, Avery tells personal stories about his life and his time as hockey’s most hated figure.

“I wasn’t going to tell stories that were going to get edited, I was laying it all out there,” he said. “I made sure to only tell stories that I was personally involved in.”

Avery played parts of 11 seasons in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers and Dallas Stars, notching 247 points and 1,533 penalty minutes in the process.

Avery is very clear in the book that his on-ice persona was just an act.

“(Hockey’s) an excuse for us to be able to act like animals,” he said. “You can’t walk around the street and act like you do in a hockey rink.”

In 2008, while playing for the New York Rangers, Avery changed the NHL rule book overnight. During the playoffs against the New Jersey Devils, Avery chose to screen goaltender Martin Brodeur by facing the net, rather than the puck. He proceeded to wave his hands in front of Brodeur’s face in the hopes of distracting him.

When Avery woke up the next morning, the NHL had changed the rules so that similar actions would result in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“I think (the quickness of the rule change) definitely had something to do with me. That’s for sure,” he told CTV’s Your Morning.

Avery made enemies for his controversial behaviour off the ice as well. In 2008, while playing with the Dallas Stars, Avery made the now infamous “Sloppy Seconds” comment about Dion Phaneuf, who was dating Avery’s ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert. Phaneuf and Cuthbert are now married.

Avery was given a six-game suspension for the comment and was sent to anger management counselling. He never played for the Stars again.

“I think it was this cat-and-mouse game of the NHL trying to figure out what to do with me,” he said.

In the 2008 offseason, Avery interned at Vogue Magazine, where he guest edited the fashion magazine’s website for men.

Avery says, when he retired from the NHL, he had no idea what he was going to do with the rest of his life, but has since settled on acting. He appeared in the 2016 Mark Wahlberg film “Patriots Day” and the 2005 Maurice Richard biopic “The Rocket.” He is also playing a CIA agent in an upcoming Peter Berg movie.

Avery says following his role in Patriots Day, he felt similar to how he felt playing hockey at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“They say ‘Action!’ and 300 people put all their attention on two people in the scene and it’s kind of electric.”

In the book, Avery also talks about his passion for Shakespeare and his desire to one day perform on Broadway.