The most talked about fitness fanatics are many of those already mentioned. Brind’Amour, Roberts, Chara and Chelios to name a few.
Many of the players who came to the NHL shortly after the Iron Curtain fell had great fitness levels and were used to grueling training regimes. Guys like Bure, Holik, Slegr, Jagr and Chara all had fathers who once were elite athletes themselves.
A relatively small guy like Aleksandr Semak was always in great shape and strong for his size. Martin St.Louis was small, but is a guy who I would rank among the fittest. Another relatively small guy, Daniel Briere used to train with Canadian World’s Strongest Man competitor Hugo Girard. Briere most likely went more for strength rather than pure fitness though.
Of course today it is more scientific than it was when guys like Gordie Howe or Bobby Hull played. Back then many of the players got their strength and fitness from working hard on farms during the summers. An underrated way to build up your strength. There are some legendary stories of "farm boy" strengths displayed by players from back in the days.
Then of course, many NHL’ers have really strong legs compared to other pro athletes.
Combining pure leg strength with some fitness. Crosby, Yzerman, Jagr, Gaborik, Bure, St.Louis etc, etc, they all had really strong legs.
Martin St. Louis
Here’s an interesting article on Chara from 1999. It's pretty amazing that more than 20 years later he is still slaying it in training camps.
Daily News, September 12, 1999
By ANTHONY McCARRON DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara is such a fitness fanatic that sometimes, says Sean Donellan, the Isles' strength and conditioning coach, the staff has to ask Chara slow down during the summer.
"We say, 'Take the day off," Donellan says of Chara's biking, weightlifting, running and wrestling-with-his-father regime.
"He's out of control sometimes, but he just wants nothing more than to be a dominant player. The biggest thing about Z is his work ethic. He'll outwork anybody in the world." Chara is the fittest player in the Isles' training camp and he proved it early on in Lake Placid.
Donellan gave all the players an aerobic capacity test that is designed to be so gut-busting that even professional athletes are expected to fail. Chara passed, along with goalie prospect Stephen Valiquette. They were the only two of the 49 players in camp to pass.
"It's a 30-minute bike ride without any chance to recover," Donellan says.
"We didn't think anyone would finish it. It's not a knock on the other guys for not finishing, it's more of an indication of Z's fitness that he did." Chara, who is 246 pounds, has a mere 8.5 body fat.
"That's unheard of for a guy his size," Donellan says.
"It's fantastic, he's a rock." Chara also finished in the top 10 of every fitness test in camp, Donellan says. At 6-9, the 22-year-old Chara is the tallest player in NHL history.
Opposing players gape at him when they see him on skates a towering 7-feet or so. And they're left gasping when Chara crunches them against the boards with a huge check.
"People think he's skinny, but then guys run into him and bounce off," Donellan says. Chara got interested in fitness from watching his father, Zdenek, who wrestled for Czechoslovakia in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
"He was always working out and I was watching," Chara says.
"After a while, I started." Last summer, Chara trained with pro cyclists at home in Slovakia, lifted weights, ran sprints and stairs and wrestled his father, who is 49.
"He still wrestles," Chara says.
"He's really strong. He's been doing it his whole life, so for him, it's nothing to wrestle me. For me, it's a great workout. You use your whole body."
Chara says he managed to take some days off, too.
"I've pushed myself," he says.
"That's what happens when you're a young guy and you want to make the team so bad. I've learned. As you get more experience, you know it's important to get a rest. Sometimes two days off is better than two weeks of workouts. My body is my book. I read my own body and it tells me." The confidence he gets from his conditioning has helped Chara develop into one of the Isles' top four defensemen and one of the team's brightest prospects.
At training camp last year, he
"had a deer-in-the-headlights look for three weeks and we had to send him down," GM Mike Milbury says.
"He's much more confident now." "Last year, I put too much pressure on myself in camp," Chara says.
"I was nervous, wishing I'd make the team." He was eventually recalled from the minors and played 59 games for the Isles, notching two goals and six assists and 83 penalty minutes.
"Now, I know what to expect, I know what to do," Chara says.
"Plus, I've learned from the older guys." And from his workouts.
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