Well Kocur was a legit feared fighting heavyweight in the NHL. Up there among the best in that 'ability' at the time. Momesso wasn't the 'nuclear option' on the Canucks. Team had a bunch of tough guys (even if you exclude Gino Odjick).
The team had three guys who were more or less complete goons in Odjick, Hunter and Antoski. It's so strange to look back on the era and realize there were 1-3 guys on most teams who could barely play hockey.
A lot of those players could play hockey (well, not Antoski) but it wasn't their role. Probert and McSorley come to mind as well, especially McSorley's '93 playoffs.
Some certainly could, but I'm not really including them, or maybe I'm letting them shelter under the deliberately broad "1-3 players" umbrella. In the Canucks' case, probably none of Odjick, Hunter or Antoski would have been in the league if they didn't fight regularly, although Antoski would have had plenty of chances to try due to his speed and effort level. Odjick had pretty good hands and timing but I think his skating would have sunk him. Tim Hunter didn't really have any NHL level skills.
my original point is only that kocur was imo the greatest heavyweight ever and no one should ever try to fight him.
but yeah it is totally bizarre that once upon a time three stanley cup finalists in four years dressed fourth lines with two fighters on it. we had hunter/mcintyre/antoski, minnesota had churla/bureau/mcrae in '91 and the blackhawks had stu grimson and mike peluso with a grab bag of randos at center in '92. then grimson and peluso would meet in the '95 finals on opposite fourth lines.
wingers who could legitimately play include peluso, who's most famous for being on new jersey's memorable fourth line with randy mckay and holik, joe kocur, who was on the '94 rangers and both detroit teams that won in the 90s, chris nilan on the habs was a real player. but that kind of player became more and more rare through the 90s, and in the last twenty years it's a small list: brashear, chris neil, domi, probably a few others that i'm forgetting but not many.
and then you have guys who were legitimate good players who just happened to also have heavyweight fighting ability, or who came in as fighters but worked their way into becoming legit good players: mcsorley, wendel clark, bob probert, dave manson, al secord, rick tocchet. a guy like momesso fought a lot of tough guys and could hang with heavyweights now and then, but he would never survive fighting guys at that level every game like these other guys sometimes had to.
of our guys, tim hunter was the most legit player imo. he knew how to play safe hockey and forecheck effectively. not a coincidence that he was a regular player on three teams that made the finals. also not a coincidence that he became a coach later, he was a smart player who knew how to play his role.