The dirtiest player in the history of NHL

[BlueDream]

Coutu is probably up there, for one night of assaulting two refs.

Dirty is relative, if he did something to your guy, it's a thousand times worse then if it's to someone else. I will give full acknowledgement to players like Bertuzzi and Cooke, although I always thought May and Ruutu were dirtier, they just didn't go out with intent to injure every time (Cooke) or have a massive, massive dirty play (Bertuzzi).

I've heard Aaron Rome's name come up in conversation for what he did to Horton. In the same way, based on that and Bertuzzi, I consider Keith a dirty player for his elbow to Daniel. I consider Ohlund a righteously dirty player for breaking Koivu's leg with a slash for having the same situation as Keith alleged (constant borderline elbows in scrums).

McSorely and Simon there too, remember the 90's/early 2000's?

Going back further is more then I can do,but Coutu was banned for life, and Simon was effectively labelled too high a risk to play after his last two suspensions, so as far as metrics go, I'd say either way.

I totally forgot some of these too:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/the-longest-suspensions-in-nhl-history/article4101583/

Dude this is a thread about the dirtiest player of all time. Bringing up one incident for guys like Rome, Keith and freakin Ohlund is more than ridiculous.

 

[67Leafs67]

Sprague Cleghorn has gotta be near, if not at the top, along with Coutu.

 

[BrianE]

Was waiting for someone born before 1990 to chime in. Linseman was the most hated man in the league his whole career. His stick work was brutal.

Clarke - and not just for viciously breaking Kharlamov's ankle in 1972.

This

Clarke & Linesman were terrible, Clarke's intentional baseball bat swing in the old barn nearly took one of Hawks heads off. HM Messier.....

http://battleofalberta.blogspot.com/2005/09/old-thugs-dont-retire-they-just-skate.html

http://www.greatesthockeylegends.com/2013/08/20th-anniversary-of-1994-vancouver.html

 

[LeftBackLegend]

Yeah this is none of the guys playing currently. Marchment is a good shout from the players I've seen, but the old time baddies were probably a lot nastier.

 

[Homer Glumplich*]

Kasparaitis needs to be here.

Hilliard Graves too. The pre Marchment Marchment

 

[KingDeathMetal]

Wolf Stansson AINEC.

 

[VanIslander]

The Braodstreet Bullies were tough but "Hammerhead" took it to a whole new level:

He went out each shift looking for someone to hurt.

 

[KingDeathMetal]

The good old days when teams literally dressed ex-convicts on parole, who happened to skate.

I kind of miss that.

 

[billybudd]

Dirtiest play I've ever seen was by Geoffrion. Dirtiest player I've ever seen on a regular basis was Marchment.

Cooke's name coming up is just recency bias. There were a lot of guys just like him or worse from the 80s to 2000s, at least one of which is in the Hall of Fame. Though, in terms of recent-ish players, wonder if Laddy Scurco counts.

 

[sandercohan78*]

for knee's either martchment or samuelsson, samuelsson was a better hockey player but martchment would fight occasionally, mostly as a punching bag

for spearing /cross checking i always hated gilmour/messier

 

[LeftBackLegend]

for knee's either martchment or samuelsson, samuelsson was a better hockey player but martchment would fight occasionally, mostly as a punching bag

for spearing /cross checking i always hated gilmour/messier

Agreed Samuelsson was a bad one, but Marchment has him beat hands down on volume of work.

Claude Lemieux always stuck on me as a Wings fan.

 

[Laphroaig]

Steve Durbano.

 

[rfournier103]

I can only go by players I've seen play:

Ulf Samuelsson.
Matt Cooke.

Non-Penguin:

Marty McSorely.

 

[Terry Yake]

Marchment, Samuelsson, Hunter, Kasparaitis, McSorley, Simon

Cooke is up there too. What a time the 80s and 90s were

 

[ytsur*]

Every player mentioned in this thread was out to hurt you.

Bryan Marchment is the only one whose sole intent was to end careers.

Every. Single. Time.

No bigger embarrassment to the sport.

Makes all the others mentioned look like Lady Byng winners.

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

We should almost break this down and do It decade-by-decade or something as the standards really vary.

Guys in the '20s were flat-out trying to kill each other... Whereas today, a guy gets three games for punching too hard.

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

This

Clarke & Linesman were terrible, Clarke's intentional baseball bat swing in the old barn nearly took one of Hawks heads off. HM Messier.....

http://battleofalberta.blogspot.com/2005/09/old-thugs-dont-retire-they-just-skate.html

http://www.greatesthockeylegends.com/2013/08/20th-anniversary-of-1994-vancouver.html

Totally agree with all this but God, the outrage in Vancouver over a nothing shot to Trevor Linden over twenty years ago is just too funny now.

I have to go back and watch that play because the way it keeps being described, I'm starting to confuse it with Willem Dafoe's death scene in Platoon (complete with slow-mo and dramatic score).

 

[sr edler]

Totally agree with all this but God, the outrage in Vancouver over a nothing shot to Trevor Linden over twenty years ago is just too funny now.

I have to go back and watch that play because the way it keeps being described, I'm starting to confuse it with Willem Dafoe's death scene in Platoon (complete with slow-mo and dramatic score).

You mean that shot he took at Linden's shoulder in the dying seconds of Game 6?

1] I think it happened off-camera near the benches so I don't even know if there's a video of it.

2] It's not the dirtiness of the shot he took people dislike, it's the cheatish intent. Messier knew Linden was injured and took a shot at his injured shoulder in the dying seconds of the game, while Linden was at his knees, to try to injure him even more.

I don't care about dirty, but that's just very, very cheap and cheatish. That's just very, very Bobby Clarke on Kharlamov. That's just very, very "Oh, I feel so threatened by your team, so I have to injure one of your best and already injured players even more by cross-checking him on his injured shoulder in the dying seconds of the game while he's at his knees with his back turned at me".

 

[IComeInPeace]

Todd Bertuzzi. HM to Matt Cooke.

Not sure how old you are, or how much hockey you watched in the 80's, or early 90's, but what Bertuzzi did was not a rare occurence in the game. The result however was rare.



This incident is almost identical to the Bertuzzi vs Moore incident years later (minus the result and outrage).

As you watch the replay, listen to the home crowds reaction.

They are actually cheering what Gino just did.

You would be very simple minded to think 'oh, Vancouver fans are classless'.

This was the league back then.

In 21 cities you would have gotten the exact same reaction if the home team player was the one delivering the blow.

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

You mean that shot he took at Linden's shoulder in the dying seconds of Game 6?

1] I think it happened off-camera near the benches so I don't even know if there's a video of it.

2] It's not the dirtiness of the shot he took people dislike, it's the cheatish intent. Messier knew Linden was injured and took a shot at his injured shoulder in the dying seconds of the game, while Linden was at his knees, to try to injure him even more.

I don't care about dirty, but that's just very, very cheap and cheatish. That's just very, very Bobby Clarke on Kharlamov. That's just very, very "Oh, I feel so threatened by your team, so I have to injure one of your best and already injured players even more by cross-checking him on his injured shoulder in the dying seconds of the game while he's at his knees with his back turned at me".

Its a play that happens every playoff series, if not playoff game.

I mean, I know it was Saint Linden but its still a bit much.

 

[IComeInPeace]

Some really good names mentioned here.

I'll add Paul Baxter's name into the mix as well.

Chris Simon wasn't initially a name that came to me head, but, yes, you're right, he was crazy dirty.

I might as well throw Gino Odjick's name into the mix.
If you wronged Gino, or a teammate (especially Pavel) he was going to do whatever it took to not only even the score, but way surpass what you did.

-There's the St Louis Blues playoff incident where Gino tried to fight every Blues player on the ice trying to get at Glen Anderson (payback from earlier in the season when Glen Anderson speared Pavel).

-There's the sucker punch to Eric Lindros above (Gino hated Eric because he used a racial slur towards him in junior hockey, and Gino could never get him to drop the gloves with him).

-There is also the beating he administered to Eric's teenaged brother Brett (Gino admitted that beating of Brett was for Eric's racial slur years earlier; not only was Brett a teenager, but he was representing Team Canada in an exhibition game vs the Canucks, and had done absolutely nothing to provoke Gino).

 

[IComeInPeace]

for knee's either martchment or samuelsson, samuelsson was a better hockey player but martchment would fight occasionally, mostly as a punching bag

for spearing /cross checking i always hated gilmour/messier

I agree with much of your post...

But, Marchment was hardly a punching bag. That was part of what made him so frustrating. He could actually fight. If he stayed in his class, most guys who wanted to kill him couldn't do it.

I don't remember Gilmour being especially dirty (I'm not saying he was or wasn't, just don't recall).

 

[nutbar]

Nearly forgotten today, but Wilf Paiement is up there.

 

[Chili]

Someone else may be able to shed some light on this but an ex NHLer (from many years ago) was telling me there were guys who would sharpen the tops of their wooden stick blades and use it to slash the backs of guys legs.

 

[Vikke]

Someone else may be able to shed some light on this but an ex NHLer (from many years ago) was telling me there were guys who would sharpen the tops of their wooden stick blades and use it to slash the backs of guys legs.

I did that when I was younger for a while, you could pretty much ruin a jersey with a hook, hehe.