Who is the hardest worker in NHL history?

In my time as a hockey fan, I'd rank Doug Gilmour, Kirk Muller and Ryan Smyth as the hardest working guys that I've seen.

All-time?

 

Wayne Gretzky. I never saw him take a shift off. And off the ice, he never seemed to duck an interview, despite the fact he's easily the most interviewed player in the history of the game.

Gretzky wasn't the most talented player to ever lift a stick, yet he's a million miles ahead of everyone else in career points. The main reason is he worked harder at his game than everyone else.

 

Don't know if he's the greatest, but Lidstrom does play a few games every season....

 

Ray Bourque: 30 minutes a night everynight

Kevin Dineen

 

Bucky!

 

Bobby Clarke.

 

The whole Sutter clan would rank right up there.

 

Butch Goring
Terry O'Reilly

 

Correct

 

Call me Homer, but I say Yzerman.See playoffs 2002 in particular.
Noone else battles though injuries like the Captain.

Honorable mention to Holmstrom for risking internal organs by planting himself in front of the net evry game and letting opponants beat him with their sticks.

 

Mario went to the net and sacrificed his body and never had an office behind the net. The greatest ever and the hardest working ever. Saved a franchise, never sold himself and never asked for a dime for anything. Too busy to hold press conferences about loonys or hire pr people to push his legacy.

 

Gretzky
Dale Hunter

 

There have been some great threads here the last few days, where people have been doing what this forum is all about: reminiscing about the history of hockey. It's been nice not having anyone attempt to hijack threads,even if only for a short time.. of course we know it would have been naive to expect it to last

In the Oiler board, a thread starter can have an "a" which enables she/he to ask a poster to leave a thread ... Boy, it sure would be nice to extend that idea to this forum, where so many great posters could keep the threads entertaining and engaging, with debates based on conisderate, intelligent ideas

 

Scott Nichol

 

Gretzky is up there for sure. He worked very hard in practice for sure. That gets overlooked.

Theo Fleury was 5'6" and a good 6 or 7 inches from average height in the NHL yet he had 2 100 point seasons. Plus he is mentioned as a potential Hall of Famer. Even if he never gets in the fact that he's mentioned is an accomplishment in itself.

The Sutters always worked hard.

Rick Tocchet comes to mind as well. I can recall him scoring a goal in the same game that he broke his jaw at one point. 1992 I believe when he was on Pittsburgh.

Jeremy Roenick is another blue collared player.

 

Stan Smyl used to work his butt off but, because he wasn't that talented, it didn't get him or his team very far.

He was labeled the "Steamer" because of his hard work.

 

As a Bruin fan I hated the Hartford Whalers, but Kevin Dineen (and any Dineen for that matter) cranked it out every night.

 

Mike Ricci.

 

It has to be Bob Gainey. Playing playoff hockey with two broken shoulder and still hitting everything in sight

Serge Savard came into the player room (as a GM) and said to Bob, that there's no way he can play the game, none of his insurance policy is willing to cover him and the team doctor just don't think that playing hockey in his condition is a good idea.

Bob Gainey : « Just bring me the discharge paper, no way I miss that game »

Bob earned every bit of respect he gets.

 

19 posts and no one has mentioned John Tonelli.

 

Or, for that matter, Bob Nystrom.

Those Islander teams were relentless.

 

the great one - cause he made it look so easy - ( ps - d men can cruise - even playing big minutes )

 

Maurice Richard deserves to be mentionned... that guy scored goals on will power alone

I mean, there were a lot of more talented players, even on his own team... but he was better than all of them because of his restlessness and endless resolve. that guy could be lying on the ice and would still be hacking away at the puck like a madman until it went in the net

 

That is not true at all. Maybe at lower levels of hockey but if you play the position properly, you can't cruise.

 

Kovalev

Just kidding


I've been to a ton of games and love watching the action away from the puck as most true hockey fans do and I was always amazed at how hard Kasparaitis worked.


Another player that I've seen many times that never stops hustling is Draper