Canucks' Top 5 Agitators of All Time

[SwaggyCanuckMZ]

Here are my top 5!

1. Jarkko Ruutu
2. Alex Burrows
3. Matt Cooke
4. Tiger Williams
5. Max Lapierre

I would appreciate any support for my article as well! Who are your top five agitators?

https://thehockeywriters.com/canucks-top-five-agitators-all-time/

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[David Bruce Banner]

Some contenders...

Bobby ”Dr. Hook” Schmautz
Ronnie Stern
Geoff Courtnall
Esa Tikkanen
Garth Butcher

My top 5 would be

Burrows
G. Courtnall
Schmautz
Ruutu
Butcher

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

before my time but young cam neely was supposedly an A+ agitator

young kesler fits this category too?

two other annoying af guys that blossomed elsewhere: scott walker and mike peca

 

[Addison Rae]

Kesler is easily top 5

 

[Hit the post]

Canucks' Top 5 Agitators of All Time

1) Strangelove
2) Kesler
3) Burrows
4) Ruutu
5) Williams

 

[JuniorNelson]

Rypien
Bertuzzi
Daniel

 

[Royal Canuck]

I was pretty young during his days in Vancouver, but did Cooke really have the huge "agitator" role when he played in Vancouver? I thought he was just a grinder instead of a pest.

Kesler was an all-time agitator. RJ Umberger anyone?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I was pretty young during his days in Vancouver, but did Cooke really have the huge "agitator" role when he played in Vancouver? I thought he was just a grinder instead of a pest.

Kesler was an all-time agitator. RJ Umberger anyone?

Cooke was absolutely an agitator. Ran around like a bat out of hell whether he was throwing clean hits or not, and rarely attoned for his own actions. He yapped a heck of a lot as well.

Going from the 90s to now, my top 5 would be...

1. Alex Burrows
2. Jarkko Ruutu
3. Matt Cooke
4. Ryan Kesler
5. Maxim Lapierre

Our early 90s teams were tough as hell, but we were heavier on legitimate fighters rather than agitators, IMO.

 

[82Ninety42011]

I was pretty young during his days in Vancouver, but did Cooke really have the huge "agitator" role when he played in Vancouver? I thought he was just a grinder instead of a pest.

Kesler was an all-time agitator. RJ Umberger anyone?

He was a super pest loved him on team hated his guts when gone. That's the definition of super pest. Kesler was great Umberger was a clown did he even play a game for us can't remember?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

He was a super pest loved him on team hated his guts when gone. That's the definition of super pest. Kesler was great Umberger was a clown did he even play a game for us can't remember?

No, Umberger never played a game for us. Kesler signed his ELC and then publicly criticized Umberger for not signing his which exacerbated their already strained relationship from college. Umberger held out and was dealt for Martin Rucinsky.

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

Cooke was absolutely an agitator. Ran around like a bat out of hell whether he was throwing clean hits or not, and rarely attoned for his own actions. He yapped a heck of a lot as well.

Going from the 90s to now, my top 5 would be...

1. Alex Burrows
2. Jarkko Ruutu
3. Matt Cooke
4. Ryan Kesler
5. Maxim Lapierre

Our early 90s teams were tough as hell, but we were heavier on legitimate fighters rather than agitators, IMO.

I agree with this list other than I'd put Ruutu at the top.

The early 90s teams were definitely more tough due to having more enforcers/fighters than agitators for sure.

 

[ziploc]

I was pretty young during his days in Vancouver, but did Cooke really have the huge "agitator" role when he played in Vancouver? I thought he was just a grinder instead of a pest.

Kesler was an all-time agitator. RJ Umberger anyone?

I remember Cooke, upon signing his new contract, being described by Tony Gallagher as a "professional riot starter."

 

[ziploc]

Tim Hunter was only on the Canucks a short time, but I recall him getting his huge nose into pretty much every scrum. He could back it up, but he definitely agitated people.

 

[demonic]

1. Jarkko Ruutu
2. Matt Cooke
3. Esa Tikkanen
4. Alex Burrows
5. Ryan Kesler

Ruutu and Tikkanen had two of the most punchable faces I've ever seen. Hopefully Roussel makes his way onto this list in a couple years.

 

[Spectrefire]

My only regret is that we never got to see a Roussel-Lapierre-Burrows line.

God imagine those f***ing three buzzing around the opposing team yapping in barely coherent English/French.

 

[Intangibos]

Kesler belongs in there, as much as I love Lapierre he wasn't here long enough.

From players I actually watched:
Burrows
Ruutu
Kesler
Cooke
Bieksa

I think Bieksa is forgotten about here, he really got in the mix.

I've heard great things about Tikkanen as well so HM to him as a player before my time.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

He was a super pest loved him on team hated his guts when gone. That's the definition of super pest. Kesler was great Umberger was a clown did he even play a game for us can't remember?

I could not stand him when he was with us.

 

[tantalum]

Cooke was hated by his very teammates by the time he was traded. Its why he was traded. They got tired of cleaning up his messes. He wasn't simply a pest by the end of his tenure with the canucks. He was just a disgustingly dirty player.

 

[MS]

Cooke was hated by his very teammates by the time he was traded. Its why he was traded. They got tired of cleaning up his messes. He wasn't simply a pest by the end of his tenure with the canucks. He was just a disgustingly dirty player.

The whole league changed roughly before/after the 04-05 lockout.

Hits that were 'great clean hits' in 2002 became 'disgusting predatory cheapshots' by 2007. It was a fascinating turnaround because he was one of the most popular players on the team for his first several years of his career to the point where one of Larscheid's catchphrases was 'Everybody loves the Cooker!!!'

It was also weird because the play that seemed to turn fans against him was a hit on Iginla where Ohlund ended up fighting Iginla and the team blew a lead. But it was a perfect, clean hit (in any era) and fans here were en masse criticizing him for hitting the other team's top player. Which was nuts.

 

[tantalum]

The whole league changed roughly before/after the 04-05 lockout.

Hits that were 'great clean hits' in 2002 became 'disgusting predatory cheapshots' by 2007. It was a fascinating turnaround because he was one of the most popular players on the team for his first several years of his career to the point where one of Larscheid's catchphrases was 'Everybody loves the Cooker!!!'

It was also weird because the play that seemed to turn fans against him was a hit on Iginla where Ohlund ended up fighting Iginla and the team blew a lead. But it was a perfect, clean hit (in any era) and fans here were en masse criticizing him for hitting the other team's top player. Which was nuts.

Not disagreeing the game changed. It did and that affected guys like Cooke. But he also got dirtier. The elbows got higher and then he started to add the Marchment knee on knee hit to his arsenal.

 

[Hit the post]

Cooke was hated by his very teammates by the time he was traded. Its why he was traded. They got tired of cleaning up his messes. He wasn't simply a pest by the end of his tenure with the canucks. He was just a disgustingly dirty player.

I don't think so. He really didn't start throwing those questionable hit until after he left the team. Course maybe that's just my Canucks bias showing.

 

[tantalum]

I don't think so. He really didn't start throwing those questionable hit until after he left the team. Course maybe that's just my Canucks bias showing.

I just remember talk after that deal from insiders being that he had definitely fallen out of favor with AV and the locker room as a whole was getting tired of his antics. Now he was a pending UFA so maybe the more accurate statement was that the team had no intention of signing him again because of these things.

 

[Hit the post]

I just remember talk after that deal from insiders being that he had definitely fallen out of favor with AV and the locker room as a whole was getting tired of his antics. Now he was a pending UFA so maybe the more accurate statement was that the team had no intention of signing him again because of these things.

Yeah I won't argue that he didn't instigate fights for his teammates to fight. I remember him getting under the skin of Phaneuf only for one eyed Viking Ohlund to step in and having to protect Cooke. Think that is the type of stuff that ticked off AV.

I *think* Cooke didn't start doing his Torres imitation until after he was on other NHL teams. Again though I'll admit maybe my judgment is clouded as a Canuckfan.

 

[MS]

Not disagreeing the game changed. It did and that affected guys like Cooke. But he also got dirtier. The elbows got higher and then he started to add the Marchment knee on knee hit to his arsenal.

The knee-on-knee stuff was always there.

I remember in his early years noticing he took a lot of kneeing penalties and wondering why nobody else at the time seemed to pick up on it.

That said, to me those kneeing penalties aren't 'intentional dirty cheapshots'. Nobody wants to be throwing that hit because your own knee could just as easily be the one injured. It's a product of reflex and flawed technique when you have an extremely physical player charging toward a guy for a hit, getting his angle or timing wrong, and then instinctively trying to throw something at the guy going past you to slow them down. So it's freaking stupid and dangerous and deserves to be punished, but I don't believe guys 'try' to knee other players. They're trying to throw hard clean hits and screw them up. And this was always my experience as well when I played (badly, at low levels).

 

[MS]

I just remember talk after that deal from insiders being that he had definitely fallen out of favor with AV and the locker room as a whole was getting tired of his antics. Now he was a pending UFA so maybe the more accurate statement was that the team had no intention of signing him again because of these things.

Crawford absolutely loved Cooke - who was a pretty similar guy to Crawford when he played - but when Vigneault came in in 2006 Vigneault didn't like him at all and he was moved out before very long. There were rumours that he'd annoyed the room but I can't remember the details.