Ranking the NHL’s top ten modern villains

There is no sport that captures the essence of a villain quite like hockey. Whether you’re a diehard fan or a casual watcher, you’ve probably got a list of the league's most hated players. But who are its biggest villains? Here’s a top ten list of our vote for the NHL’s biggest modern villains

Todd Bertuzzi wasn’t always a villain with a bad reputation. But when he quite literally single-handedly ruined the career of Colorado Avalanche star Steve More in 2004 he became one the league's most infamous players. 

Late in the third period of a regular season game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche, Bertuzzi was sent out onto the ice and attempted to instigate a fight with Steve Moore but failed to do so. 

Instead of skating away, Bertuzzi opted to grab Moore’s jersey and punch him in the back of the helmet, sending Moore’s face straight into the ice with Bertuzzi landing on top of him. 

Moore would suffer three fractured neck vertebrae as well as a major concussion. The incident ended his professional career and instantly made Bertuzzi one of the NHL's most hated players. 

Claude Lemieux is a name anyone reading this list would expect to see considering his utterly disgusting track record of illegal checks and dirty hits. 

There is one incident above all others that earned him his spot as a top ten NHL villain, his 1997 hit on Detroit Red Wing Chris Draper. 

During the last game of the 1996 Western Conference Finals, Lemieux manoeuvred behind Draper and illegally checked him, sending Draper's face directly into the boards. The move shattered Draper’s jawbone and kept him out of play for the rest of the season. 

Chirs Pronger might have been one the greatest NHL defensemen of all time but he also earned himself a reputation for being a bit of a jerk on the ice.

Pronger was one of the toughest opponents you could go up against in his day and it’s very easy for hockey fans to hate a guy that loved to get physical with their favorite players. 

Fans didn’t really hate Pronger because he was too physical. People hated Pronger with a passion because he could teach a masterclass in how to steal a puck at the most inopportune time, just ask any Chicago Blackhawks fan.

Tuomo Ruutu was a very talented and divisive player in the NHL because of his ferocious reputation for doing anything he could to stop an opposing player. 

Ruutu wasn’t just known for monster knockout hits either, he would also slash, stab, and elbow his way into a player's personal space, often riding the line between what was allowed and what wasn’t. Fans hated him and players feared him, which made him one of the biggest villains of his generation. 

Ask almost any hockey fan and they'll tell you they hated Matt Cooke, even the fans of the teams he played with. Why? Because he was a pest that loved to hit dirty, and maybe that’s why Sports Illustrated once considered Cooke to be the NHL’s most dangerous player.

Cooke was often suspended for his questionable hits with his biggest, a seven-game suspension, coming in 2014 after he delivered a knee-on-knee check to Tyson Barrie in Game 04 of the first round of the playoffs. It was a darn dirty move even for a darn dirty player...

The Boston Bruins have hosted a lot of villains on their team over the years but none have been as formidable as the vaunted Zdeno Chara. 

Towering over most players at a whooping 6’9 it's easy to see how some could come to hate him. But as a Redditor in the NHL subreddit noted, “he's huge and strong, difficult to play against and has a cannon shot that has broken our captain's [Ryan Callahan’s] foot, so I am sure everyone (besides for Bruins fans) has a reason to dislike him in some way.”

Ryan Kessler falls into the camp of pest players, plus his physical performance always forced his opponents to play his kind of game—which wasn’t always a bad thing if you were cheering him on. 

Conrad Schnider of TheThings.com called Kessler a “love him if you cheer him, hate him if you don’t type,” which is one of the main ingredients required to make a great NHL villain. 

You might be surprised to see Sid the Kid on this list but it makes total sense. Yeah, if you’re a Pittsburgh Penguins fan then you absolutely love the guy. But most fans have come to loathe Sydney Crosby not just for his skill but also for his whiney reputation.

Bleacher Report’s Brad Kurtzberg actually dug into this hatred a bit and found that Sid the Kid has roughly 607,000 Google results for “I Hate Sidney Crosby” and he even has his own official hate page on Facebook.

“The bottom line is that fans of the other 29 teams love to hate Sidney Crosby,” Kurtzberg wrote, “and it's probably in large part due to jealousy.” When you get hate from that many fans, you know you're probably a villain in someone else's story...

Marty McSorley was a goon from a bygone era that probably wouldn’t be remembered by today’s hockey fans if it wasn’t for an incident that got him permanently suspended from the NHL.

Back in 2000, McSorley ended his career when he bashed Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear over the head with his stick in a way that wasn't part of the game.

Brashear suffered a major concussion from the incident and McSorley was brought up on criminal charges for his assault and served eighteen months of probation according to the Washinton Post.  

If you know, then you know. Sean Avery was easily the biggest villain both on and off the ice during his time playing professional hockey. 

Fans hated Avery, management hated Avery, and fellow players even hated Avery for his insane attitude and treatment of others.

While there are dozens of on-ice examples we could use to underline Avery’s villainous nature, a 2007 shout-out to the-Calgary Defenseman Dion Phaneuf really exemplifies his character.

"I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada.” Avery said during a TSN interview, adding, “I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight." 

The “sloppy seconds” comment was in reference to Phaneuf’s relationship with B-list Hollywood actress Elisha Cuthbert, Avery's former lover, and it didn’t go over well with NHL brass…

Avery was allegedly forced out of Dallas for his remarks according to the New York Post and eventually landed in New York where he played until his retirement in 2012.