Since the turn of the millennium, it’s been clear in hockey that the glory days of the old-school enforcer are fading away. No longer will a team employ a giant of a man who can barely skate across the ice just so they can punch the lights out of the opposition’s players. All-time great sluggers of the 20th Century like Dave ‘Tiger’ Williams and Dave ‘The Hammer’ Schultz would nowadays struggle to get on any teams roster.
These players were all business when their skates were on
However, that doesn’t mean the role of the enforcer in modern day hockey has evaporated completely, it has just been adapted. With the skill of hockey getting higher and the speed getting faster, the toughest players on the team now have to be able to bring more to the game than just their fists, they now have to be able to play.
Let’s have a quick rundown then of some of the greatest NHL enforcers to have played since the year 2000.
Derek Boogaard
It broke the hockey world’s heart back in 2011 when then New York Rangers player Derek Boogaard passed away at only twenty-eight-years-old. The man might have terrorised players on the ice, but he obviously charmed them off it. Boogaard was a native of Saskatchewan and stood a towering 6ft7in even without his skates on.
He was known as a fighter and an enforcer throughout his career from an early age and was able to throw hands with any opponent he sensed was deserving, which earned him the nickname ‘The Boogeyman’.
He could also assist and score though, which made him an asset on the ice whilst also bringing fear to any potential rivals.
Zdeno Chara
What a career Slovakian hard-man Zdeno Chara is having. The forty-four-year-old started his journey as an NHL enforcer way back in 1997 and is still making a statement out on the ice today. This man-mountain is one of the tallest players to ever play in NHL and stands an immense 6ft9in tall.
Chara is a bonafide legend to the fans of the Boston Bruins after he spent fourteen seasons as their captain and took the team to three Stanley Cup Finals. For such a giant, the man nicknamed ‘Big Z’ can move with great speed and agility and is an expert at flinging himself in front of shots.
He finally parted ways with the Bruins in 2020 and now plays for the Washington Capitals. With Chara commanding the ice it’s easy to see why the Capitals are priced at +1000 to win the Stanley Cup on most U.S betting sites. For those who are looking to place a bet on the hockey, it’s a sensible idea to take advantage of any deals on offer. SBO.net scour the internet to find safe and secure betting sites that also offer exclusive promotions. They’ve recently compiled a list of deposit match bonuses just in time for the Stanley Cup Finals, which could help your stake stretch a little further.
Tie Domi
This Toronto Maple Leafs’ legend stayed with the team for eleven seasons and managed to scrap with everyone and anyone who got in his way. Tie Domi is easily the shortest player on this list standing at only 5ft8in tall, but what he lacked in size, he made up for with tenacity. He made a career out of regularly getting into fights with opponents much bigger than him and winning most of the time. Yet, his lack of size also helped him to weave in and out of players and play precision passes to his teammates in open spaces to score.
It was with him zipping around the ice like an indignant wasp that the Maple Leafs were able to compound some of the NHL’s biggest rivalries, which here at ProHockeyNews.com we have previously written about.
They weren’t afraid of getting in trouble with refs
Georges Laraque
Canadian Georges Laraque was someone you definitely wouldn’t have wanted to mess with out on the rink. The player was nicknamed ‘Big Georges’ or ‘BGL’ for short, and he lived up to the name, making himself a huge presence on the ice. He was even named as the number one enforcer in the league back in 2008 by Sports Illustrated.
Yet ‘BGL’ had great offensive skill too and even netted a hat-trick against the Los Angeles Kings showing he could do the business at both ends of the rink.
Laraque played at several teams but spent most of his career at the Edmonton Oilers in the right-wing position. He retired from hockey in 2015 and as reported last year over on TheSun.co.uk now fancies his chances fighting Mike Tyson in a charity boxing match. Judging by his time in hockey, we think he’s in with a chance.
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