Europeans who had a physical style in NHL

[Eye of Ra]

Europeans are not known for their physical style. What are some europeans that had a physical style in NHL?

Im talking about giving out pain. Hitting. Physical with the stick etc. Im not refering to fighters or players who took beatings.

Swedes with physical style:

Mattias Öhlund
Ulf Samuelsson
Niklas Kronwall
Mattias Norström
Börje Samling
Thommie Bergman
Marcus Ragnarsson
Mats Thelin
Thomas Eriksson
Douglas Murray
Nicklas Wallin
Andreas Lilja
Jonathan Ericssson
Nicklas Grossman

Tomas Sandström
Thomas Steen
Tomas Holmström
Peter Forsberg
Samuel Påhlsson
Anders Kallur
Mats Hallin
Johan Garpenlöv
Marcus Nilson
Nils Ekman
Mikael Samuelsson
Fredrik Sjöström
Matthias Tjärnqvist
Joel Lundqvist

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[MarkusKetterer]

Evgeny Artukhin and Alexander Svitov were physical non-goon forwards.

Konstantinov, Ulanov, and Zhitnik were physical non-goon dmen. Volchenkov, Kalinin, and Emelin were physical later guys. Orlov and Zadorov are physical guys nowadays.

 

[GMR]

Danil Markov and Vladimir Malakhov. The latter was a lot bigger and had more fights but Markov had no issue being physical.

Volchenkov also. Good physical player. Blocked tons of shots. Threw his body around.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Evgeny Artukhin and Alexander Svitov were physical non-goon forwards.

Konstantinov, Ulanov, and Zhitnik were physical non-goon dmen. Volchenkov, Kalinin, and Emelin were physical later guys. Orlov and Zadorov are physical guys nowadays.

Danil Markov and Vladimir Malakhov. The latter was a lot bigger and had more fights but Markov had no issue being physical.

Volchenkov also. Good physical player. Blocked tons of shots. Threw his body around.

after vlady, yushkevich was my fav physical russian d

 

[Michael Farkas]

Patric Hornqvist grinds for a living.

 

[Puck Dogg]

Tikkanen, Jarkko Ruutu, Gudas and Chara fit the description. All physical players.

 

[mattihp]

Sami Helenius. Monster. Jere Karalahti was amazing at it too.

 

[johan f]

Exclude Jonathan Eriksson and insert Tomas Forslund.

 

[KapG]

Darius Kasparaitis

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Sami Helenius. Monster. Jere Karalahti was amazing at it too.

Helenius was a goon. And not a very good one. And Karalahti was more known for his shot than anything.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

after vlady, yushkevich was my fav physical russian d

I forgot all about Yushkevich. Probably because I consider him as an offensive type D that can hit (or basically a pre-Orlov Orlov)

 

[Prsut18]

Gudas from current players

 

[mattihp]

Helenius was a goon. And not a very good one. And Karalahti was more known for his shot than anything.

Jere could still destroy people with a hit from a stand still. Open ice hits were huge too, those used be a thing.

Sami was an amazing hitter too.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Exclude Jonathan Eriksson and insert Tomas Forslund.

Ericsson threw about 100 fewer hits than Kronwall, in almost 300 fewer games with less playtime on average, and has also been in quite a few fights.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Speaking as a completely unbiased non-Wings fan, Kronwall was one of the best all-round hitters Ive ever seen. Particularly his ability to time huge open-ice hits, which became orders of magnitude more strictly policed over the course of his career, was unmatched.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

That Europeans aren’t physical is an ignorant old stereotype that can hardly be taken seriously by anyone who watches hockey today. I don’t know when ever it was true unless you’re only counting fighters — not that there haven’t been European goons as well — but I guess they looked at Näslund and Loob and forgot about Salming and Tikkanen.

At any rate, have a look at the league leaders in hits over the last five years and you’ll soon find it absolutely futile to try and identify each and every physical European, because all kinds of players are developed anywhere nowadays.

European top 10 finishes in Hits since 2015-16:

Gudas, Czech Republic: 1-4-4-10
Zadorov, Russia: 1-7
Hakanpää, Finland: 3
Polak, Czech Republic: 3
Ristolainen, Finland: 4-8
Komarov, Finland: 5
Larsson, Sweden: 6-6-9-10
Hägg, Sweden: 8-8
Emelin, Russia: 9-9
Ovechkin, Russia: 10

 

[MadLuke]

That Europeans aren’t physical is an ignorant old stereotype that can hardly be taken seriously by anyone who watches hockey today.

Wonder if it is not even reversed, say a Russian D if we do not expect to be more physical/block shot than the average one now, I feel that at least outside hockey the stereotypical Russian men is more manly men that have a cigarette and a vodka with is breakfast and chop wood bare chested than the North American one of today at least.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Kronwall is interesting because while he was clearly one of the best open ice hitters, that’s where his physical game started and ended. He wasn’t a guy who was nasty in front of the net or in the corners or dirty with his stick. Still one of the last guys you’d ever want to get caught with your head down against though.

Konstantinov, on the other hand, was that SOB you didn’t want to go into corners with on top of the open ice hits.

 

[Puck Dogg]

Also worth mentioning Antoine Roussel, Leo Komarov and Toni Lydman.

 

[KapG]

That Europeans aren’t physical is an ignorant old stereotype that can hardly be taken seriously by anyone who watches hockey today. I don’t know when ever it was true unless you’re only counting fighters — not that there haven’t been European goons as well — but I guess they looked at Näslund and Loob and forgot about Salming and Tikkanen.

At any rate, have a look at the league leaders in hits over the last five years and you’ll soon find it absolutely futile to try and identify each and every physical European, because all kinds of players are developed anywhere nowadays.

European top 10 finishes in Hits since 2015-16:

Gudas, Latvia: 1-4-4-10
Zadorov, Russia: 1-7
Hakanpää, Finland: 3
Polak, Czech Republic: 3
Ristolainen, Finland: 4-8
Komarov, Finland: 5
Larsson, Sweden: 6-6-9-10
Hägg, Sweden: 8-8
Emelin, Russia: 9-9
Ovechkin, Russia: 10

Gudas isn’t Latvian. He is from Prague

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Gudas isn’t Latvian. He is from Prague

Whoops! Thank you, I edited it.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Jere could still destroy people with a hit from a stand still. Open ice hits were huge too, those used be a thing.

Sami was an amazing hitter too.

Fair enough. To me if I can think of something other than “hitting” or “laying the lumber” when it comes to a player, I don’t think of them as physical. But it’s different sides of the same coin, I guess.

 

[KapG]

Whoops! Thank you, I edited it.

You’re welcome! He’s very much a punishing player. A dying breed I’d say, which is sad.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Patric Hornqvist grinds for a living.

Yes but i only brought up players that are not active anymore.

If we look at active players i would say Landeskog, Hörnqvist, Fast, Eriksson Ek and Sundqvist is physical players among swedish forwards. When it comes to d i would say Hägg, Adam Larsson and Edler.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Exclude Jonathan Eriksson and insert Tomas Forslund.

Jonathan Ericsson was physical but he should have played ever more physical.

Yes Forslund was a gritty dude who delivered checks, but he was forward, Ericsson was D.