NHL: 10 Worst Fighters in League History

Fighting is one of the most exciting parts of the NHL, but nothing's worse than an awful fight where two guys would rather wrestle than throw some good punches.

If you agree to fight—or act like a goon for an entire game—be prepared to fight. Don't act surprised when the gloves are dropped.

Let's look at 10 players who just took the excitement out of fighting and may not even have known how or when to fight someone.

Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins featured columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston. Follow him on Twitter for NHL news and analysis. Follow @NicholasGoss35.

Jay Caufield

Jay Caufield was an awful fighter who rarely tried to throw punches and would rather have just wrestled for a few minutes.

When he had enough, he fell to the ground—just terrible.

Torrie Robertson

Torrie Robertson epitomized hugging/wrestling and only started to fight—in this video at least—after he took his opponent to the ice with a headlock.

Starting to fight when the guy's on the ice? That's pretty cheap.

Paul Baxter

Paul Baxter was one of the bigger sucker punchers in the NHL for quite some time, and he would often attack players when they couldn't defend themselves or were laying on the ice.

He might even be one of the most hated NHL players ever.

Rich Tocchet was just giving Baxter some of his own medicine in this video.

Ed Hospodar

Ed Hospodar was not a good fighter—as this video shows you—but the worst part is that he picked this fight with New York Islanders bruiser Clark Gilles, who at the time was one of the toughest players in the game.

Picking a fight with someone much tougher than you after they decline, then you can't even put up a fight...yeah, I'd say Ed Hospodar is a pretty bad fighter.

Craig Berube

I've never fought in a hockey game, but if I did I would know that kicking is not only an unwritten rule but makes you look stupid.

Craig Berube tries to kick Mick Vukota here, and Berube promptly gets nailed.

Maybe Berube should try to fight like a man instead of treating this bout like a martial arts training exercise.

Joe Paterson

Joe Paterson is one of the bigger wrestlers to play the game of hockey, and in this bout with Ed Kastelic, Patterson seems to want to wrestle more than fight.

Kastelic wants to go and was definitely eager to fight, but Paterson clenched on to him and wouldn't let him.

Gary Nylund

Gary Nylund was one of the tougher guys in the NHL during his career, but he wasn't that great of a fighter.

He wrestled a lot and didn't want to battle with guys much better at fighting than him, like Joey Kocur in this video.

Don Jackson

Don Jackson does two things wrong in this battle with Stan Jonathan:

First, he picks a fight with the "Big Bad' Boston Bruins led by Terry O'Reilly, and second, he continues to battle after getting pummeled repeatedly.

When Jackson did actually try to punch, his punches were weak and often didn't affect the opponent at all.

Shawn Antoski

Shawn Antoski was a decent fighter, but during the later stages of his career he became quite the punching bag.

Antoski liked to grapple on people and prevent real fights from breaking out; he also didn't throw very good punches.

Brett Lindros

Brett Lindros was one of the bigger guys in the NHL who just got pounded regularly, often by smaller and younger players.

Lindros liked to fight a lot, and had some good bouts, but he ultimately wasn't a great fighter.