Top 10 NHL Goons of All Time

Coming up with a list of the top 10 NHL goons of all time was surprisingly challenging. The NHL has seen hundreds of goons come and go in its history. NHL hockey is widely considered the most violent of the major professional North American sports. The NHL is certainly the only professional league that condones fighting, punishing the goons involved with a simple 5 minute penalty, instead of the game expulsion and subsequent suspension they'd face in other professional sports. Not all NHL players who fight can be considered goons, however. The terms goon and enforcer are reserved for those exceptionally gifted pugilists, who rarely possess little in the way of hockey skill. These goons make their living by terrorizing the other team, and often serve as protectors for their own team's star players. Some of these enforcers were so effective during their career they became factors by virtue of their ability to intimidate. Here are my picks for the top 10 NHL goons of all time:

10 - Donald Brashear

Some people may question Brashear's appearance on the list of the top 10 NHL goons of all time, but watch this guy fight and you'll see why I've included him. The guy never loses. Occasionally the other guy might manage to cling for dear life and battle Brashear to a draw, but Donald never gets beat up. Truly one of the most effective enforcers in the NHL.

9 - Stu Grimson

Say what you want about Stu Grimson, but this enforcer had of the best goon names of all time for certain. The Grim Reaper dealt out enough punishment to earn himself over 2,100 penalty minutes in an NHL career than spanned only 729 games, and during his prime in the early 1990s with the Blackhawks, the Grim Reaper was one of the most feared enforcers in the league.

8 - Tie Domi