The fashion world in general—and Vogue in particular—needs a dose of hockey. And Sean Avery might at long last marry haute couture with slap-shot shit-talk.

"The Animal," who signed with the New York Rangers last year for $1.9 million, has reportedly scooped up a coveted summer internship at Vogue, the result of a blind pitch he wrote to editrix Anna Wintour herself. Since word of the internship came out in Page Six-comma-The Magazine and the New Yorker, fashion and media types have questioned his qualifications, which seem on the surface to be limited to the ownership of patent-leather Yves Saint-Laurent high tops and a Calvin Klein throw, a general interest in fashion, and a desire to "smell nice occasionally." Beyond the fact that the publicity from all of this will surely help him reach his $4 million salary goal when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season, we say a guy who's made a career as an enforcer balanced atop sharpened blades is perfectly suited for the position:

He has an edge on the average starstruck wannabe. He's dated Rachel Hunter and Elisha Cuthbert and has even been linked to an Olsen. He can handle the gossips, who are always scouring for dirt from disgruntled interns. Avery himself successfully laughed off rumors when his name and cell phone number cropped up on a list of clients of Kristin Davis, the Maison de L'Amour call girl who was also said to be linked to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. But mostly, his experience with another snippy, cranky, chilly group of people—professional hockey players—will serve him well in dealing will fashion's own ice queens.

Avery has been widely ostracized (though begrudgingly coveted) for his unique taunts. In a recent first-round playoff game, he embarrassed his teammates, the opposing players of the New Jersey Devils, and virtually everyone watching by not only blocking goalie Martin Brodeur's view of the puck but turning around to face Brodeur while wagging his stick and hands in the goalie's face. He later he scored on the psyched-out Brodeur (video below). Imagine how well this would serve him when he came face to face with an uncooperative KCD flack at the Bryant Park Tents during Fashion Week?

"He really doesn't shut up ever," his own goalie says. He once taunted a player by suggesting he let his dog lick his face, not bite it. That—coupled with the occasional body check—would go over swimmingly around the Vogue fashion closet.