NHL Power Rankings: The 12 Biggest Hitters in the NHL Today

There are a lot of things that get a crowd pumped up. A big goal, a huge save, but few things get a crowd and a players' bench more fired up than a big hit.

Fans love it when their guy lines a player up and sends him down to the ice wondering where that last hit came from.

These guys can change the course of a game with one of their hits.

So here are the 12 best hitters in the NHL today.

Mike Richards

Mike Richards isn't really a big guy, but he plays like he is one of the largest and most intimidating players in the league.

The biggest part about Richards' game is his scoring, but the thing that makes him such a leader on his team and the reason that his teammates respect him so much is the way he throws his body around. He will go in against anybody at any time.

He's such a dangerous hitter because he seems to always be able to find that time when his guys isn't expecting a hit as a possibility.

Richards plays very close to the edge and will have to be careful with some of his hits with the big crackdowns on hits to the head coming into play.

Luke Schenn

Luke Schenn is a young defenseman in this league, but he's already managed to show himself as a physical force.

He's very solid defensively, good positionally, is very strong and won't let you mess around with his goalie.

His physicality is one of the things that makes him such an effective defender because players know that if they come near his kitchen, they are going to pay the price for it.

This hit on Malkin shows how good of a hitter he is, because Malkin is slippery and very strong on his feet and Schenn absolutely drives him off of the puck and straight into the boards.

Then he beats up Tyler Kennedy for good measure. The message being, "Yeah I just hit one of your best guys. What are you going to do about it?"

Brooks Orpik

This is probably one of the best 20 second clips of hockey that I have ever seen.

Orpik has four hits in a 20-second span in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

You just don't usually see Detroit Red Wings players get pushed around like this in any situation, let alone in the cup final.

Orpik has a great physical presence and throws the old-school hip check very effectively. He's also got the ability to stand a guy straight up.

Orpik can really change the pace of a game when he is able to drop the thunder.

Mike Komisarek

Mike Komisarek is a big man who can lay the body with the best of them.

This collection of hits shows exactly why Toronto would want to go out and get a guy like him, as it seems like half of the hits on his top-10 collection were against the Maple Leafs.

I understand that people in Toronto think his contract is too big, and that would be true, but this guy can absolutely change the course of a game.

Players can try and avoid him, but Komisarek will find you. It does no good, witness protection couldn't keep this guy off of you.

Eventually, Komisarek will be able to put you on your back! One of the best hitters in the game right now.

Anton Volchenkov

When Volchenkov became a free agent at the end of the 2009-2010 NHL season, I was very vocal on several boards that the Avalanche absolutely needed to go out and get this guy.

All I heard was, "Why would you pay a lot of money for a shot blocker?"

Well, the video above is my reason. Because blocking shots is barely scratching the surface at what this guy does.

Watching this clip, the thing that makes me absolutely gush over Volchenkov is how we can constantly generate big hits while opposing teams are on a rush.

He can change direction so fast and make that cut to just clobber somebody in the blink of an eye.

There's even a couple of hits where he nails a player who has their head up. Players with their heads up rarely get destroyed the way that Volchenkov destroys people.

He is incredibly valuable on the blue line, and I wish he was on my team.

Chris Pronger

Chris Pronger is not going to receive Christmas cards from a lot of people in the NHL, as he has earned a reputation for being one of the dirtier players in the league.

Regardless of how dirty he has played over his career, he has also gained the reputation for being one of the biggest and hardest hitters that the league has ever known.

As he has aged, Pronger has definitely learned some restraint when it comes to the unnecessary plays.

In the above clip, it would have been easy for Pronger to try and hurt Toews in that situation, instead he just holds his position and sends Toews down with a hit that is still pretty impressive.

That type of hit is one that Pronger has been able to do for his whole career, and it's funny to think that a lot of the biggest hits he has "thrown" have been a result of people trying to hit him.

He's just so big that very few people are actually able to get the leverage they need to knock him off of his feet. But if you ever do, find the clip, and add it to your highlight reel. That is an accomplishment!

Alexander Ovechkin

Hitting isn't the first thing that you think about when you think about Alex Ovechkin.

You think about what a great scorer he is, what a huge shot he has, how fast he can skate, but hitting is a huge part of Ovechkin's game.

Not just in the sense that he sees a guy who has the puck, decides that he must be destroyed and then goes and destroys him. Ovechkin's most impressive hits come when he has the puck or when he just let it go.

Ovechkin's reactions are so fast that he can go from focusing on trying to put the puck in the net to defending himself as fast as lightning strikes. Just when you think you've got Ovechkin, he sees you coming and makes you feel the pain.

Then he picks up the puck and scores just to rub it in.

Dustin Brown

Dustin Brown knows very well what his job is. He hits people, as you can tell from his quote in the above clip.

He's another guy that isn't very big, but he is very strong, and you feel it when he hits you.

Brown can occasionally cross the line on his hits, as you see in the clip he can be known to occasionally lead with the elbow.  That will catch up with him with the new emphasis on hits to the head.

Brown consistently leads the Kings in hits, and he makes them all count. He is a difference maker for his team and he uses his big hits to give his team energy.

That hit he has on Chris Pronger is one that he should save, not too many people can say that they laid out Chris Pronger.

Milan Lucic

Lucic is a very big power forward that is going to be hitting people for years to come.

He gets to the top portion of this list because of his consistent ability to lay the body on guys in a manner that really makes a positive impact for his team.

He's not a flashy hitter, doesn't really do the line 'em up, knock 'em down sort of hit. Hit fore-checks hard and punishes guys for hesitating.

He has a pretty cool highlight hit where he puts Mike Van Ryn through the class, but that isn't so much about how hard the hit is so much as where it gets the class.

I've broken glass before by lobbing a puck softly into the corner, and I don't shoot the puck that hard at all.

Nonetheless, it does make a pretty cool highlight.

Niklas Kronwall

Niklas Kronwall is a breed of defenseman that you haven't really seen a lot of until recently, the European defender that really likes to play the body.

Unlike Niklas Lidstrom, who is much more reliant on his ability to move the puck and play positionally, Kronwall looks to lay the body first.

Kronwall hits hard, and he hits often. This clip definitely shows that he has a tendency to lead with his elbow, which is going to get him in trouble with the new rules on hits to the head.

Still, you have know when Kronwall is on the ice, because of his ability to read the play and step up to land a huge hit when you least expect it.

Dion Phaneuf

Dion Phaneuf has made a career out of huge hits on both suspecting and unsuspecting opponents.

He's big and strong and can just manhandle pretty much anybody that comes near him.

Look at how many of these hits Phaneuf literally just tosses the guy he is hitting around like a rag doll that he's done playing with.

Phaneuf hasn't produced as much offensively in the past couple of years as he did when he first burst into the league, but he as become quite the defender and is a great choice as captain of the Maple Leafs.

Zdeno Chara

Chara is the biggest and baddest player in the NHL and has a size advantage over every single player in the league.

Just as any of us would do in his position, Chara uses his immense size and strength to his advantage in every single physical confrontation in which he takes part.

That Pacioretty hit, while definitely questionable, shows exactly how much stronger he is than pretty much everybody else out there.

Chara is the biggest and best hitter in the NHL today.

Questions, Comments, Discussion

If you have any people that you want to add to this list, or changes please feel free to add them in the discussion below.

Kevin Goff is a Featured Columnist for the Colorado Avalanche and is a member of Bleacher Report's 2011 NHL Draft Team.  For more NHL news and discussion,