Hockey is played hard and fast. Athletes will hook, trip, face wash and pester to gain a winning edge. Like all sports, hockey has official rules and unwritten rules. It also has a code of respect. And there are many players that blur the lines between the two. Or cross them entirely. They can be downright dirty.
These dirty, unsportsmanlike, and sometimes dishonorable players take every liberty they can on vulnerable players. They’re seemingly incapable of delivering clean body checks on a regular basis. They take cheap shots, run smaller players, and blindside unsuspecting peers, igniting an intense and impassioned hatred. In short, they have earned their spots on our list of the most hated players in the NHL.
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To get on this list, it’s not about being hated but despised. It’s more than Philadelphia Flyer fans hating their nemesis, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. These are players that are despised for the way they play the game, as it is often reckless and can cause long-term injury for what should be nothing plays.
Dirty Players… the Dishonorable Mentions
Unfortunately, there are more than ten dirty players worthy of the list. Here are a few that are notable, but did not crack the top ten.
Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning
Nikita Kucherov is, inarguably, one of the best players in the NHL. When he is playing a focused game on the ice, he is borderline unstoppable, as he will find ways to generate offense whether he is dishing out a pass or snapping a perfect shot on goal.
If you only see his highlight-reel plays, however, you will miss another aspect of his game. Despite being a star, Kucherov can also be described as a ‘greasy’ player, especially when he lets his emotions get the best of him.
Most famously, Kucherov was suspended for Game 3 in the First Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup when he boarded Markus Nutivaara, which is something you wouldn’t expect from a player who posted 128 points en route to winning the Hart Trophy that same season. He has also been known to deliver some dirty slashes behind the play or on breakaways that are simply inexcusable in the league.
Ryan Reaves – Toronto Maple Leafs
For many years, Ryan Reaves was known as the ridiculously tough fourth-liner who would rack up penalty minutes and lay down hundreds of hits each season. He was hated by many but didn’t regularly cross the line.
After joining the Vegas Golden Knights at the 2018 trade deadline, however, Reaves’ reputation started to shift. No longer was he a player who just played a physical brand of hockey, but he started to find himself in the press for negative reasons. Late hits, hits to the head, and just flat-out dirty play that left numerous players on the ice in seriously dangerous conditions.
All you have to do is look at the 2021 Playoffs to see where Reaves’ bad reputation comes from. He laid down a dangerous hit on former Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter that left him face down on the ice after hitting his head on the net and then followed that up with a retaliatory hit on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves, which ended with him pulling a chunk of hair out of his head.
To put it simply, this sort of play has no place in the league. There’s a fine line between being a tough player who will stick up for their teammates and someone who is making plays with the intent to injury. Lately, Reaves has fallen on the wrong side of that line.
Alexander Ovechkin – Washington Capitals
Being one of the league’s most talented players doesn’t give you a free pass. Alex Ovechkin, arguably the greatest goalscorer in NHL history, has been a player with dirty tendencies in the past. He delivers hard hits but regularly takes them too far, leading to blindside hits, knee-on-knee hits, and hits from behind have led some to dub him a cheap shot artist.
The elite Russian talent has been ejected for boarding majors and for kneeing, and he’s been suspended multiple times in his career. The most notorious offense was a cheap shot in 2010 that sent a defenseless Brian Campbell crashing into the boards, leaving him with a broken collarbone. He was also suspended three games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for charging Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek and started more controversy when he speared Trent Frederic in the groin.
Brendan Lemieux – Philadelphia Flyers
It’s true… the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Brendan Lemieux, son of Claude Lemieux is no stranger to blurring the lines of proper play. Lemieux plays the game like a goon and has a history of making plays that sit on the borderline of legal.
In 2017-18, while with the Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate, he had 170 penalty minutes in 51 games. His headhunting play has been suspended several times in the OHL while playing for the Barrie Colts.
In the NHL, Lemieux was suspended for two games for an illegal check and is a fan of sitting in the penalty box. Throughout his 275 games played in the NHL, he has 484 penalty minutes to his name, making him the fifth most penalized player since he entered the league. And of course, there is the now infamous biting incident. For someone who already has a record, biting a fellow player not only multiple times but hard enough to draw significant blood crosses one of those thresholds in a violent sport.
Honestly, Lemieux should be higher on this list, but he simply isn’t playing enough in the NHL right now to get into trouble. This is a relief, of course, because he hasn’t shown that he won’t injure players when he is on the ice, whether intentionally or not.
The Top 10 Dirtiest Players in the NHL Today
10) Corey Perry – Edmonton Oilers
Playing against Corey Perry is like being a mole in a ‘Whack-A-Mole’ arcade game. The 2003 first-round pick plays an aggressive style with a penchant for some nasty stick work, hacking and whacking opponents whenever he can. He also riles opponents by running his mouth, delivering late and low hits, and has a flair for selling penalties like no other.
The flip side of this is that Perry was once a highly skilled offensively-minded power forward who could come up big in key moments for the Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, and most recently the Montreal Canadiens. He’s had success on every stage in his career, including the Stanley Cup, Memorial Cup, OHL Championship, Olympics, World Championship, World Cup, and World Junior.
Even in his advancing years, Perry still is known as a player that you never want to face in a playoff series, as he will, at some point, be in the middle of a controversial hit or dirty play that will have you pleading with the referees for a call.
9) Radko Gudas – Anaheim Ducks
Born in Prague, Czech Republic, Radko Gudas was drafted in the third round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the Lightning. After a few years with that franchise, he was acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2014-15, joined the Capitals briefly in 2019-20, signed a three-year deal with the Florida Panthers during the 2020 offseason, played a key defensive role in their run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, and then signed a big deal with the Anaheim Ducks after his contract expired.
Throughout his career, Gudas is well known as a player who is always on the borderline of legal. He has been suspended several times for controversial slashes and has many more hits to his name that brought the ire of the NHL, earning fines and the reputation of a dirty player. His now infamous celebration in front of Joseph Woll in the clinching Game 5 is a perfect example of the kind of irritating player he can be, even when he’s not laying out opponents.
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In recent years, Gudas has vowed to clean up his game, and for his part, he hasn’t earned a suspension since 2019. However, that doesn’t excuse his backlog of dirty plays that drew some of the larger suspensions in recent memory. Play like this isn’t forgotten easily, and he still has to prove that he knows where the border between clean and dirty lies each season.
8) Nazem Kadri – Calgary Flames
The seventh overall pick in 2009 is no stranger to controversial hit after controversial hit. He steamrolled goaltender Niklas Backstrom with a nasty elbow. He’ll go headhunting, land a dirty knee, and take out an opponent’s knees. His careless elbows and aggressive style of play has earned him a steady, growing trend of penalty minutes and poorly timed suspensions.
Nazem Kadri’s barbaric hit on Tommy Wingels on April 12, 2018, added to a lengthy rap sheet that grows longer every year. It was the type of hit that could’ve ended a career and created serious damage. He hasn’t learned his lesson, either, as he laid a similarly dangerous hit on Jake DeBrusk in April 2019 that earned him a three-game suspension, and got another eight games after delivering an illegal check to the head of Justin Faulk during the 2021 postseason.
There’s no doubt that Kadri is an incredibly talented forward, but if you can’t control your play on the ice, it doesn’t matter. He is often on the wrong side of playing a tough, physical game, and until he can get that under control it will continue to limit his top-end potential as a starting forward.
7) Evgeni Malkin – Pittsburgh Penguins
A common theme of this list is dirty players who are amongst the top stars in the sport. One such player is Evgeni Malkin, who has been a superstar with the Pittsburgh Penguins for close to 20 years now, but also has a reputation as one of the dirtier players you don’t think about.
In recent years, Malkin has received two suspensions, which include one game in 2019 for high sticking and four games in 2022 for an ugly cross-check on Matt Borowiecki.
Makin has a bit of a history of being loose with his stick, as he likes to take nasty slashes, hacks, and cross-checks against his opponents. He also has more than a few questionable hits under his belt, but these often get overlooked as he is such a prolific scorer. Honestly, I even questioned putting him on this list before talking with other members of THW, where they reminded me about his past transgressions.
If the Penguins struggle again in the 2023-24 NHL season, it won’t be a shock to hear about Malkin crossing the line while taking out some of his frustrations on his opponents.
6) Matthew Tkachuk – Florida Panthers
Matthew Tkachuk has picked up where his dad left off by being a tough-as-nails power forward who pushes the game to its absolute limit. After he entered the league, Tkachuk has earned a reputation as one of those players who tries to straddle the line between gritty and dirty but doesn’t always get it right.
Tkachuk has been suspended three times and earned his reputation as a dirty player. Even as he has learned to control his physical game and avoided making those suspension-worthy hits in recent years, he still manages to draw negative attention to himself, like when he was involved in an incident that injured Toronto Maple Leafs’ starting goaltender Jack Cambell early in the 2020-21 season.
What we can take from this is that as long as a Tkachuk is in the league, expect controversy to follow. As said best by Doughty back in a sportsnet.ca interview in 2018:
“I’m pretty sure he might be (The most hated player in the NHL),” said the Kings defenceman in a one-on-one interview late Wednesday. “I have lots of friends on other teams and they don’t love him either…”
5) Jacob Trouba – New York Rangers
Suspensions aren’t the only sign of a player who skirts the line between clean hockey and dirty hits. For the newly anointed captain of the New York Rangers, Jacob Trouba often sits on that line but has managed to avoid crossing over and gaining the ire of league officials.
During the 2021-22 season, Trouba became a focal point of controversy, when a hit to Jujhar Khaira caused the forward to leave the ice on a stretcher. This followed him throughout the postseason, where he had a tendency to put down hits that forced players to leave the ice. Some saw these hits as good old-fashioned hockey, while others saw them as dangerous plays that targeted vulnerable players.
No matter your opinion on the situation, you can’t argue that Trouba will be a lightning rod for controversy moving forward. His play will be under a microscope and every hit will be looked at through a different lens if players continue to get injured.
4) Jamie Benn – Dallas Stars
When I asked around THW who the dirtiest players in the league were, a name that kept coming up was Jamie Benn. My favorite description of the Dallas Stars’ captain was, “He’s a player that manages to be both sneaky dirty and outright dirty.” I think this description is apt, as he is known for slashes, cross-checks to the back, and a general heavy-hitting game plan that would be at home in the 1980s. However, this is often considered perfectly legal by the NHL, as he only received a handful of fines and no suspensions throughout his career, even if his actions may have led to short and long-term injuries, most notably a cross-check to Dylan Larkin’s neck that left the forward in a cervical collar for eight-weeks.
During the 2023 playoffs, however, Benn gained national notoriety after he very clearly cross-checked Mark Stone directly in the head after he fell to the ice. It was a blatant action that actually drew the ire of the league, leading to a two-game suspension, which is rare in the Conference Finals.
This all helped to push Benn up this list, as he has been a player who managed to skirt the limit of legal play. While it’s unlikely that he will receive another suspension in his career, don’t be surprised if more controversy follows him in the years to come.
3) Sam Bennett – Florida Panthers
Hockey is a violent sport. Injuries are part of the sport, especially throughout long postseason series when teams play each other multiple times over the course of a handful of days. Sometimes, however, you start to notice that controversy follows a player, and they can’t help but find themselves in the middle of a bad hit.
During their 2023 Stanley Cup Final run, the Panthers really picked up the moniker of dirty team. As a scrappy unit, they clawed, punched, hit, and scored their way to the Final. One player who often found himself in the middle of these altercations was Sam Bennett, who quickly gained a reputation as a player who knew penalties aren’t called the same way in the playoffs, so he could do whatever he wanted on the ice. Sure, he has received an occasional suspension and/or fine, but this has done little to deter his questionable play.
While you can look at his actions as just postseason hockey, his altercation with Matthew Kneis which led to the Maple Leafs’ rookie being concussed after having his head slammed to the ice simply doesn’t belong in the NHL, or any professional sport. However, as long as he gets rewarded for his actions, they will continue and more players will receive serious and avoidable injuries.
2) Brad Marchand – Boston Bruins
Though the original “Rat” is Ken Linseman, Brad Marchand’s dirty style has also earned the moniker. He’s so dirty that his own team’s fan base often has trouble defending his actions at times. The undersized forward plays on the edge with borderline hits, unorthodox behavior, a mouth that never stops yapping, and a tongue that likes to lick. On top of that, he’s a frequent diver which irks players as much as fans.
Clipping. Slew-footing. Elbowing. Spearing. That’s the “Little Ball of Hate.” At 5-foot-9 forward, he has more despicable on-ice antics per pound than any player in the history of the NHL. Players admit, you love him on your team but feel the opposite if playing against him.
All that said, he’s developed into a first-line player and a valuable piece of the Bruins roster, so it’s a bit of a shame he is more known for his reputation as an unsportsmanlike player with little remorse for his wrongdoings. In recent years the antics have, thankfully, not been the primary discussion of his play on the ice, but he is still known as a dirty player by the league.
1) Tom Wilson – Washington Capitals
There are two options for your opinion on Tom Wilson. You either hate him and see him as a sign that the NHL really doesn’t care about player safety, or you’re a Capitals fan.
Throughout the years, he’s broken jaws and sidelined opponents with concussions while earning multiple suspensions. The polarizing repeat offender has built a career with a controversial playing style that’s targeted opponents’ heads and delivered late hits. He always seems to put himself in situations worthy of scrutiny.
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While he was able to keep his name out of the headlines briefly, Wilson fell back to his old playing habits in 2020-21. First, he was suspended five games for boarding Brandon Carlo, which was the fifth suspension in his career. Then, he had the moment that briefly broke the NHL, when he got into a scrum with Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin that left the Rangers’ star injured in a play that looked dirtier and dirtier the more you saw it.
To put it simply, there is a gap between what the NHL says they allow on the ice, and what they actually allow. With a player like Wilson in the league, he finds a way to live in the gap, somehow skirting by while putting players’ health in danger.
this is all wrong. players like sean avery shouldn’t be on this. i’m tired of hearing he’s a dirty player. to me, a dirty player isn’t a player who gets called for lots of penalties. that’s part of the game (this applies to pronger as well, to an extent). a dirty player is a player who crosses the line in a huge way. obviously slashing someone is crossing the line, but you won’t get suspended for it. things like hitting players from behind, head shots, picking fights with skill players, biting, playing physically with the intention to injure, that’s dirty. IMO jarkko ruutu should be #1
Dion Phaneuf gets away with leaving his feet on hits and elbowing heads all the time. He’s one dirty fool.
The whole ‘Leaving His Feet’ argument doesn’t make sense to me. The problem is that refs never enforce a simple charging penalty anymore. If I’m 6 inches from a guy, standing still and decide to jump – I’m hardly going to be doing any damage yet if I’m flying at top speed, racing across the ice and cream a guy without leaving my feet, I could kill him (and when you hit a guy very hard your feet will almost always come off the ice). A charging penalty is a charging penalty and a head shot of any kind is an attempt to injure and should be at minimum a major penalty. Where’s my rule book – ?? Pronger/Phaneuf or Gordie Howe/Eddie Shore there’s always going to be ‘dirty’ players, makes the game interesting. It’s the high speed charging and head shots that are a real danger (life long danger – not just a hockey incident).
Aww, and here I was hoping for the Pronger, Hartnell, Carcillo 1-2-3 punch.
Pronger is up there as one of the dirtiest players in the NHL, but dirty players have a tendency to get overrated as such. There are certainly other names that are dirty but would never make this list.
It’s all a matter of taste. Do you consider the guy who you know is going to come flying at you with a brutal check more dirty than the guy who will wait for a scrum to build, run around behind everyone, and start throwing punches when no one’s looking?
For my team I’ll take the first. You don’t want to be known as having the greatest flying elbows, but it’s better than being a cheap rat.
Neil’s hit on Drury should be another mention.. also the fact that he has said a few times that he hits people to hurt them.
There should be some sort of ‘dishonorable mention’ where you add in Maxim Lapierre, that guy plays pretty dirty sometimes.
How did you find the only existing photograph in the world in which Chris Pronger’s elbows are below his ears?
How is Ovechkin not on the list.He fits the criteria.Late hits,knee on knee,leaving his feet.It will catch up to him sooner or later.
Why aren’t Dion Phaneuf and Nik Kronwall on this list? If leaving your feet for a hit qualifies, these should be the top 2