Who is the best hockey fighter of all time?
 

Who's your choice as the greatest hockey brawler of all time?

That is too tough of a question to answer, just like who was the best player of all time.

In my era, the best/toughest were Bob Probert and Joey Kocur, but of course, that will also be debated/denied and laughed at as there will be others who think so and so was tougher during my era.

Pound for pound the toughest player I’ve ever seen watching hockey for 50, Stan Johnathan. Played for the Bruins in the 70’s and at 5:7 maybe 185 pounds he was like going at it with a fire hydrant. Even his teammate, John Wensink who once challenged the entire Buffalo bench, said “nobody wants any part of Johnathan”. That’s good enough for me. Honorable mention, Philly’s one Dave Schultz.

I know I'm gonna miss some, Bob Probert, Nicky Fotiu, Behn Wilson, Dave Richter, Terry O'Reilly were pretty good. Bob Gassoff was tough in a too short career.

Clark Gillies had a long fuse but was deadly when you pissed him off.

Old timers say John Ferguson was tough as nails.

Agree with Murph, Schultz was the Best in the 70's.

Probert was the baddest man on the planet in his hey day.

I also liked Tie Domi - head & jaw of steel


Great YouTube Doc on the Boogeyman - Derek Boogaard

Fotiu for me. Not a huge guy but MASSIVE hands. Also one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Was an autograph guest at a show I promoted a few years back.

Fotiu's fight with Steve Durbano, with Steve mooning the Rangers fans was an all-time classic.

Domi and Robbie Ray about even in the concrete skull department, and both worthy nominees in the pound-for-pound category
(neither of them particularly large specimens). A lot of, er, head-to-head confrontations between the two,
slight edge to Ray.
One really impressive guy getting no love here so far is Sandy McCarthy. Even other goons/enforcers lauded above
declined to tangle with him.

As a big Flyers fan of the 70's you have to say Dave Schultz. He and Terry O'Reilly were the big names in fighting. I think Dave still has the record for penalty minutes LOL.

Way before my time but I have heard, pound for pound, Forbes Kennedy was someone many didn't want to tangle with?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-s6uT16S8A

So many names come to mind. Stu Grimson, the Grim Reaper, The Boogey Man, Derek Boogaard, (as already mentioned) Colton Orr, Brashear, George Leraque, George Parros, Eric Lindros, and of course, Wendel Clark, one of my all time favorite players. Not many come any tougher than what Clark brought.
(Wendel Clark and Joey Kocur are cousins in case some of your didn't know that and that is why they never fought one another.)
Turn this one up! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7XgYSoK1go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF3wVJPdAs4

Interesting stat, Al Secord is the only player to score 40 goals and have 300 PIMs in the same season. 44 goals- 303 PIMs

Mick Vukota says that Tie Domi just...kept...coming. Like stated above, head made of concrete. Gillies essentially ended Schultz’ reign as baddest man in the league. O’Reilly Gillies in the 1980 quarter finals battled to 1:1:1 in their three fights.

As for Nick Fotiu - I ran into him at the Long Island Marriott after his playing career. The nicest guy. Can’t believe I rooted against him!

Let’s unpack just what a POS Mike Milbury was: 1980 Quarterfinals. All these guys pair off at the Boston Garden. Who does Milbury, wannabe tough guy, pair off with? Butch Goring...with an all time total of 91 career PIM Over a 15 year career! And the f’ing Isles hire him 15 years later.

I lost all respect for Domi when he literally ran away from Sandy McCarthy, then tried to go after Flyers goalie Brian Boucher, one of the all-time punk moves.

A buddy of mine is close with Piero Greco when he was up in Toronto working with junior goalies. (As it turns out, Piero wound up on LI). But the Tie Domi stories post career really paint him as being a first class jerk according to Piero and Joe.

Then there are stories from Teemu that say Domi was the salt of the earth.

I think a relationship went south with a news anchor up in Toronto and Domi handled it very poorly post break up.

Not sure I remember what Mick had to say about him. I know he disliked him when they were playing.

Great documentary on Netflix about this topic called Ice Guardians. Interviews a number of players and former enforcers about the role, the code, life style, etc.
Good watch for hockey fans. Almost all the names mentioned above come up.

Clark Gillies...with a shout-out to Billy Smith, if we're including netminders!!!

In a short career I think I ever saw Link Gaetz clearly lose a fight with the Sharks, except maybe once to Kocur. He didn't back down from anyone.

Epic bout with Probert is on YouTube, circa 1991.

Funniest one was some guy on St Louis got a little blindsided, threw off his gloves not knowing who hit him. This was right in front of where my seats were. The St Louis guy saw it was Gaetz and the look on his face was priceless. Gaetz gave him a chance to back out but the St Louis guy had to save face so Link said, OK, and proceeded to pound him pretty good.

The neighbor hood I grew up in when I first really got into cards was perhaps a bit "backwards"
Phil Esposito having 70 goals one year as seen in past stats? Cool.
Dave Shultz with 348 Penalty Minutes!!!!
(he set the record at 472 during my first big year of collecting. )

One of the best bits of radio was when they had the winter classic in Fenway one of the guests was David Shultz. Who was interviewed on the morning show I liked by Lyndon Byers.

The discussion turned to penalties of course... may not have the exact quotes exactly right...
LB So I tried breaking your record one year.
DS I know, I was rooting for you.
LB How did you do it? Before the season was even close to over I could barely raise my arms. (probably 87-88, when he only had 236... so not such a great run at it...)
DS Well, I had a lot of game misconducts.

Hockey sure has changed since then.

Best fighter throughout the game's history??

While it's almost impossible to compare different eras and players, some of the "toughest" are certainly known and would include....



Eddie Shore. The Bruins defenceman accumulated 900 stitches throughout his career, had fractures to his back, hip and collarbone, had his nose broken 14 times, his jaw cracked 5 times and every tooth in his mouth knocked out. As a rookie with Boston, he had a reputation as a tough guy, with Art Ross putting that to the test. He enlisted notorious bruiser Billy Coutu (Coutu is the only player in history to be banned from the NHL for life after chasing and beating a referee after a game) to charge Shore, and after the pair viciously collided, Eddie's ear was almost completely detached. According to legend, the ear was reattached while Shore watched with a mirror, refusing anesthetic. It should also be noted that a young Shore was mentored in mayhem by a veteran HOF star widely regarded as the all-time roughest and toughest player in history....

Sprague Cleghorn. Enjoying a professional career that spanned from 1909 until 1928, the Peg took part in over 300 fights, and was notorious for his violent play. He famously blindsided a rookie King Clancy with a crosscheck to the temple, knocking him completely out, and when Clancy awoke in the hospital, Cleghorn was there in the room - but not to apologize, but to warn Clancy, basically stating, "you know you got what you deserved" (Clancy had tapped his stick on the ice calling for a pass as a teammate would, with this fooling Cleghorn as he made the pass without looking, allowing Clancy to head up the ice and score. This would have been seen as a huge slight or show of disrespect). He would then be referred to as "Mr Cleghorn" by Clancy throughout the remainder of his career, with the story retold in Clancy's autobiography. Sprague himself also claimed to be in over 50 incidents where opponents where carried off the ice on stretchers. He was interviewed by Macleans magazine after his playing days in 1934, and when asked if the modern game was better than in his era, he stated that while he couldn't say for sure if the players were better or worse, he did say that without a doubt they were nowhere near as tough. He noted players complaining about being slashed, and that in his day, slashing was only objectionable if done to the upper body, face or head! It's also interesting to note that according to sources, Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, was so mortified with his violent play that she donated the Lady Byng Trophy to the NHL in 1924 to award sportsmanlike play.



In an era when men were men and were hard as nails, these two were a few of the last of that now-gone breed.

Yeah, Sprague is such a positive example of "when men were men".

When he wasn't blindsiding someone with a shot that could've maimed them (which is usually a dick move, and Clancy's breach of code was not an exception to that), he was beating his first wife with crutches from an ankle injury.

Tough is great. Being a POS isn't.

Doing bad things doesn't negate one's toughness or strength.
That should be common sense.
No one said he was an angel. It was mentioned numerous times he was violent.

Randy Holt getting 67 PIMs in one period:

https://youtu.be/-hMesmZTSz8

Gordie Howe. The Howe hat trick, a goal, a assist, and a fight. Over 2000 penalty minutes, all though not anywhere near the record for penalty minutes, its a lot for goal scorer. Howe was tough.

By the way, while the definition of the phrase "Gordie Howe hat trick" exemplifies Howe's on-ice style,
Howe himself never once in his interminable career actually had a "Gordie Howe hat trick."

Probert
 

This is a much watch if you have not seen it:

Tough Guy - Bob Probert Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJJkj-oSHM

At one point, the Hawks had Dave Manson, Stu Grimson, and Mike Peluso. A fight was never far away.

A buddy of mine's son, Mitchell Heard, who was drafted 41st overall by the Colorado Avalanche.
Unfortunately, Mitch, who was a decent player who could put points up, took to fighting instead of working on his game as his dream of making it to the NHL is long gone now.
https://www.hockeyfights.com/players/16162/videos

Chris "knuckles" Nilan

From the many stories I have read, once a player got Maurice Richard enraged, you were going to get knocked out, and most of the time it took but one punch from The Rocket to do it. I remember an old timer describing Rocket's punch was fast as lightning. His General Manager, Frank J. Selke, said Maurice did not look for fights, but he sure as anything finished many of the them.;) --- Brian Powell

I worked at the Leafs during Domi's time there. Mats may have had the C on his chest but make no mistake Tie was the captain. If you messed up you had to answer to Tie. He was a hothead and not everyone got along with him but he kept that team in line.

Probert is the first one that comes to mind. Put me down for Tie Domi, too. Little guy, but he had balls. He wasn't afraid of anyone, and that jaw could take a beating.

I just watched this. Gaetz threw some haymakers.

My first time seeing Gaetz, he TKOed Randy McKay, Randy was very tough and had a good jaw, I was very impressed.

I've heard several players say no one punched harder than Tony Twist.

Interesting fact :

Tie Domi has 333 career NHL fights, more than anybody else who has played the game.

Paul Laus has the most fighting majors in a season with 39 and Eddie Shore has the most fighting majors in a game with 5.

In 1986 season Bob Probert played 74 games for the Red Wings. He scored impressive 29 goals and had 33 assists .... and a whopping 398 penalty minutes!

87-88 according to this link, but still damn impressive. Imagine his numbers if he had of stayed out of the box!!
https://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...probebo01.html