Don’t expect Nathan Hodel to be doing any snow angels this winter.

The new Patriots’ long snapper calls former New England long snapper Lonie Paxton “great,” but he has no interest in trying replicate Paxton’s trademark celebration “snow angel” move he made famous during the 2001 postseason.

“I don’t know -- maybe I’ll work on that with my kids,” Hodel said with a smile during a break in between workouts at Gillette Stadium recently. “Maybe I’ll try something new. Lonie has got the patent on [the snow angel].”

Hodel, a 6-foot-2, 238-pound veteran, was acquired in free agency on March 10, shortly after Paxton signed a rich new deal with the Broncos. In the long-snapping fraternity, Paxton (who spent nine seasons in New England) is something of a legend, not only for his consistency, but his ability to land a five-year, $5.5 deal that included a $1 million signing bonus. It made him the second-highest paid long snapper in the NFL.

“Lonie is a great snapper, and I think that speaks to the fact that he got a really nice contract from Denver to go do it,” Hodel said with a smile. “At the end of the day, that’s a nice way to measure how much somebody wants you -- by how many dollars they put in your pocket.

“Lonie is a great snapper. When you’ve got someone that wants you like that, it just speaks to the career he’s had.”

It turned out Hodel was part of an offseason long-snapping carousel that saw Paxton go to Denver, Broncos’ long snapper Mike Leach sign with Arizona and Hodel go from Arizona to New England. And while Paxton carved out an impressive career, the 31-year-old Hodel isn’t exactly chopped liver himself. The Illinois product has spent eight years in the league, including the last seven-plus seasons with Arizona. He handled every snap for the Cardinals from 2002 through last season, including their unlikely road to Super Bowl XLIII, which ended with a late loss to Pittsburgh.

“That was tough. I didn’t especially take losses too hard, you know? I understand the game -- you win ’em, and you lose ’em,” said Hodel, who was the player rep with the Cardinals. “But that was tough, because in the beginning of the game, we didn’t do anything right. And then, all of a sudden, we come firing back. It’s Kurt [Warner] to Larry [Fitzgerald], and you know, it’s like, ‘We’re going to get a ring out of this deal.’

“But it just kind of fell apart. That was tough. After the game was over, I didn’t know if I’d be able to look back and enjoy it all, but now I do. But for awhile there, it was … and I’m sure a lot of guys on this team that have the same feelings about the prior year’s one out there.”

Hodel was surprised when he was cut loose by Arizona less than a month after the Super Bowl. He’d just signed a four-year deal, and felt secure after spending eight years with the Cardinals. But thanks to new special teams coach Scott O’Brien -- who worked with Hodel for a brief stretch when he first entered the league in Carolina -- he wasn’t out of work for long.

And when Hodel visited Gillette Stadium in March, it didn’t take him too long to realize he’d found the place he had been looking for.

“Some guys around the league have a notion that the Patriots can be kind of arrogant, but my thing is that if you’re winning, you can do whatever you want,” he said. “You kind of write your own ticket.

“But I didn’t have any preconceived notions, but it was really when I took that visit and was in the building, it’s just all football. There’s no nonsense. If you need something in the training room, it’s there. If you need something in the weight room, it’s there. If the coaches need something, it seems like it’s there. It’s not like, ‘Well, we’ll see if we can get a hold of that.’ It’s what you need to be successful, and now the onus is on you to succeed.”

Hodel, who will be battling rookie Jake Ingram for the job, had surgery on his left knee in the offseason, but has received assurances that he’s good to go for the upcoming organized team activities. And he’s done his part to try and get acclimated with the program, specifically working with punter Chris Hanson and kicker Stephen Gostkowski.

“I’ve been working with Steve when he’s been here, and those are two professional guys,” said Hodel, who went out to breakfast with the two the other morning. “It seems like they’ve got real level heads on their shoulders. They’re professionals -- they go out and do their job. But they don’t take it to the point where it’s going to get in their head. They don’t take it to the point where it gets in their head. They understand that you make mistakes but you learn from them and you move on.

“I’m excited to work with those guys.”

Christopher Price covers the Patriots for WEEI.com.