‘When it comes to hockey’s greatest April Fool’s prankster, however, no one ever topped Paul Wieland, back when he was the director of communications for the Buffalo Sabres. “This was Paul’s favorite holiday,” says Gerry Helper, who is now the Predators’ senior vice president for communicaitons but who got into hockey when Weiland hired him as an assistant 30 years ago. “He told me I was going to write all the releases except one, and that was the April 1 release. He did that every year.” And they were great.’