Top 5 Hockey Goons/Fighters Of All Time

One of the most popular things to casual hockey fans, is the fighting aspect of it. No other sport in the “Big 4” (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) allows their athletes to settle heated exchanges in fisticuffs, except for the NHL. While I don’t expect the mass majority of you to know about who the best scrappers were, I’m here to educate you. Being born and raised in Canada, I grew up watching hockey like the vast majority of the people here. While majority Americans played pick up basketball, we Canadians played street hockey growing up. I’ve seen many great enforcers come and go throughout the years I’ve watched hockey, and the majority them had the tough personality to match their play. So let me breakdown some of the most praised, and my personal favorite goons ever.

Dave “Tiger” Williams

Although Tiger Williams was before my time, the legend of Tiger Williams is praised by every old time hockey fan; but hated by all of his opponents. Tiger made the “enforcer” role popular and set the stage for all tough guys in the NHL. During Tiger’s 18 year career he logged the most penalty minutes in NHL history at 3,966… That’s over 400 minutes more than Dale Hunter who is #2. Although Tiger was the player who made fighting popular, he wasn’t a terrible “hockey” player like most enforcers were. He was a pretty good goal scorer at the peak of his career, having a few 20/30 goal seasons. Hell, he even made an All-Star game, but that’s not what made Tiger popular. Tiger will always be remembered by hockey fans as the one of the toughest players to ever grace the ice. When the word “enforcer” comes to any hockey players mind, they think of Tiger.

Bob Probert

When I first started watching hockey as a young kid in the 90’s, Bob Probert was the toughest man on the ice. Probert out of anyone on the list, probably has the most fights in total. In Detroit, he was known as Steve Yzerman’s guardian angel; protecting him often. On top of that, no enforcer had as many storied rivalries like Probert had, most notably Stu Grimson, Craig Coxe, Joey Kocur, Wendel Clark, and Marty McSorley. But his most memorable rival was with Tie Domi, another legendary tough man. Tie Domi and Bob Probert were like The Rock and Steve Austin of hockey fighting, every time they were on the ice together you know a fight was going to go down. Probert retired in the 2002, and eventually passed away from chest pains in 2010. Although he’s gone, Probert’s legacy as a tough man in hockey will never be forgotten.

Georges Laraque

Laraque in many hockey fans opinion is the best fighter in NHL history, and it would be hard to argue. At an imposing 6’3″ and 270lbs, he by all rights should’ve been a MMA fighter or professional wrestler. Instead Georges choose to be a NHL tough man, and he had a pretty good career. Off the ice, everyone will tell you Georges is a nice guy, but on the ice he is willing to throw down with anyone that gets in his way. Being a black hockey player you’re always going to be a target so you have to be tough, and man was Georges tough. In hindsight, that’s really all Laraque could do, he was quite possibly the worst skater to ever play hockey. My cousin in Montreal, who plays hockey overseas attended a skating course with him to enhance your skating ability. According to him he was the worst in the class, which doesn’t surprise me. But at the end of the day, Laraque is the toughest guy to ever lace those skates… Even though he can’t skate.

Peter Worrell

Out of everyone on the list and every goon to ever play the game, Peter Worrell is my favorite fighter/goon/enforcer of all time. Peter was a GIANT on the ice, standing at almost 6’7″, he towered over everyone on the ice. One of his most notable moments was when Scott Niedermayer whacked his hockey stick over Peter’s head, and Peter looked at Niedermayer, with a “Nigga, WHAT?” expression. As Peter was getting escorted off the ice, he did the classic Chris Benoit throat slash to the New Jersey Devils players. The sad part about this is the media and NHL players tried to make WORRELL THE BAD GUY! They tried to claim his gesture was “unsportsmanlike” and bad for the game, after he got whacked in the head with a hockey stick, as crazy as that sounds. One of the more funnier Peter Worrell moments is when he got arrested for a traffic violation. Peter who is African-Canadian tried to use the name of his Swedish teammate, Andreas Lilja to get out of the situation. Of course eventually Peter got caught in the lie, and it got worse for him, but still hilarious nonetheless. But still Peter Worrell remains my favorite hockey goon of all time.

Donald Brashear

Coming from a broken home, filled with racism, torture, and mental abuse, Brashear emerged from it all and became one of the toughest and popular enforcers in NHL history. Although he didn’t fight as much as the other guys on my list, it was because players were intimidated by him. He has a well known reputation as being a tough guy, on and off the ice, having been in many fights and brawls outside the ice rink. The most memorable Brashear moment was at his own expense, when Marty McSorley brutally assaulted him with his hockey stick. Brashear fell back and smacked his head on ice, and suffered a serious concussion. That was one of the biggest on-ice incidents of brutality in my life time (other than the Steve Moore/Todd Bertuzzi punch from behind incident). Proving how tough he was, Brashear was able to come back from it BEFORE the end of the season and still have a long career in the NHL. Brashear, also showing how tough he is, decided to take up MMA, and had a professional fight where he knocked his opponent out in under a one minute. Today, Brashear still plays hockey, but in a low level league in Quebec, even though he’s past his best days. Even so, Brashear will always be remembered as one of the most feared enforcers in NHL history

800 Comments