Dale Hunter’s Unbreakable Record

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

Dale Hunter’s Unbreakable Record

Dale Hunter is the only player in NHL history to have registered over 3,000 penalty minutes and to have scored 1,000 points in his career. This will never happen again, and we shall explain why.

Dale Hunter's Unbreakable Record

Click to read more...

 

[JMCx4]

Oh, we shall, shall we?

Despite the author's bombastic style, he does make a strong argument for his "Unbreakable" claims. But the old "never say never" adage did leap to mind far more easily than it does for his Sittler & Gretzky & Orr comparisons.

 

[Crosbyfan]

Nostalgic tone: "We'll never see another dirty player like Hunter!"

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Dirtiest player of the TV era

 

[Sadekuuro]

Dirtiest player of the TV era

Marchment?

 

[sr edler]

He lost me at the second sentence:

"Though he never won the Stanley Cup, he must be considered a winner regardless."


Edit: Also found this sentence a bit contradicting to the "point" the article is trying to make:

"Imagine how many more points he could have accumulated had he not be assessed so many penalties."

 

[Howie Hodge]

Nostalgic tone: "We'll never see another dirty player like Hunter!"

Mike Ramsey's missing front teeth strongly agree with this....

 

[The Panther]

"Imagine how many more points he could have accumulated had he not be assessed so many penalties."

Ha! Yes, if only those rotten refs hadn't gotten in the way and cruelly assessed him all those penalties for basically doing nothing! While in the penalty box for an aggregate of 12 light years, Hunter, of course, engaged in contemplative Bible study when he wasn't crocheting throw-pillow covers.

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

Why Hunter’s Achievement Shall Forever Stand

Dale Hunter’s place as the only player in NHL history to score 1,000 points and have at least 3,000 penalty minutes will stand forever. There is really no question of it. For starters, longevity is a must-have component for this discussion. Hunter played 19 seasons in the NHL, and did not reach his 1,000th point until his 18th season. 12 seasons saw Hunter play in every game, which attributed to him playing a total of 1,407 in the regular season. In order to play in that many games and for that long, he needed to be talented enough, relevant enough, and healthy enough to do so.

Then you must consider the rarity of his supreme penalty minute totals. With the dramatic decrease in fighting that the league has seen in recent years, no player will be able to accumulate enough minutes in the box to even approach 3,000. In the entire history of the NHL, only nine players have ever reached the 3,000 mark – Tiger Williams, Hunter, Tie Domi, Marty McSorley, Bob Probert, Rob Ray, Craig Berube, Tim Hunter, and Chris Nilan. That is it. At the time of this article, no current player in the league has even surpassed 2,000. To reach the same amount as Hunter and his counterparts just will not happen. Forget about it.

 

[PaulaMesser]

Maybe if was more of team player and not in the box so often his stats may have been much higher

 

[blood gin]

Dirtiest player of the TV era

Not sure I could put Hunter above Mark Messier, Ulf, and Claude Lemieux. 4 way tie for dirtiest. Messier probably had less incidents than the other 3 but when he did have them they were really really ugly. Like attempted murder bad.

 

[The Panther]

Not sure I could put Hunter above Mark Messier, Ulf, and Claude Lemieux. 4 way tie for dirtiest. Messier probably had less incidents than the other 3 but when he did have them they were really really ugly. Like attempted murder bad.

That was learned behavior from his dad, Doug, who was a battle-scarred veteran of the 1950s' era minor-pro Leagues in BC, Alberta, Oregon.

Mark Messier was 95% a clean player (by the standards of his time), which you couldn't say of Hunter or Lemieux, who were about 30% clean. But with Messier, the very thought of that 5% dirty exploding anytime was an intimidating factor.

I personally never thought Samuelsson was dirty player. Much overblown there, I think.

 

[blood gin]

That was learned behavior from his dad, Doug, who was a battle-scarred veteran of the 1950s' era minor-pro Leagues in BC, Alberta, Oregon.

Mark Messier was 95% a clean player (by the standards of his time), which you couldn't say of Hunter or Lemieux, who were about 30% clean. But with Messier, the very thought of that 5% dirty exploding anytime was an intimidating factor.

I personally never thought Samuelsson was dirty player. Much overblown there, I think.

Take my word for it he was. It was just that this was the pre internet/social media era and he played in a small obscure market. I saw a lot of Whalers games and Ulfie did a lot of underhanded, dangerous things

 

[BobbyAwe]

I saw him in a pre-season game against the Islanders his first year. I guess he wanted to make a name for himself because he fought Garry Howatt 3 times. The third time he dropped his gloves (after coming out for the 3rd period) his hands were taped like a boxer's. True story. Carry on...

 

[TheAngryHank]

Shanny put up some crazy numbers points/pims

 

[Your Boy Troy]

Probably my least favourite player of all-time. Not only was he the dirtiest player in his era, but he picked his spots when it came to fighting. Had the tendency to bail out of fights if he thought that he was overmatched.

 

[Mayor Bee]

[deleted]

 

[The Panther]

We're talking about Messier, right?

Messier fought guys like McSorley (twice, no less), Gary Roberts...

Two guys who used to individually stir it up and then run away were Mats Naslund and Doug Gilmour...

 

[Mayor Bee]

[deleted]

 

[The Panther]

The last fifteen years of his career, Messier fought:
- Valeri Zelepukin
- Joe Day
- Kevin Haller
- Kevin Kaminski
- Zarley Zalapski
- Vladimir Konstantinov
- Joel Otto
- Todd Hlushko
- Marty McSorley
- Josef Beranek
- Jason Arnott
- Darius Kasparaitis

Of those, five were classified as "unfair": Zelepukin, Kasparaitis, Beranek, Arnott, and Day.

In other words, half the guys he fought were bigger than him and half the guys he fought were smaller.

Wouldn't that be standard for any non-goon player? (Also, Arnott was 6'5'', 220 lb. Bigger than Messier.)

 

[Mayor Bee]

[deleted]

 

[The Panther]

Arnott was jumped by Messier - quite literally - in a move normally seen in WWE. Messier then suckered Arnott when Arnott was completely locked up by an official.

If it was Brad Marchand or Ulf Samuelsson, he'd be rightly blasted for it.

Haven't you been around here a while? Messier gets blasted on here more than any other elite player.

 

[brachyrynchos]

A 20 year career would have to average 150 penalty minutes and 50 points per season. It could be broken, I guess alot of circumstances are involved. A power forward with high peaks and long term durability can do it. Another thing, is era and style of play.
Dale Hunter- 1407-323-697-1020-3565
w/QUE- 523-140-318-458-1545
w/WSH- 872-181-375-556-2005
w/COL- 12-2-4-6-17

Tocchet came close, 1144-440-512-952 2970, not sure if anyone is closer.

 

[Your Boy Troy]

We're talking about Messier, right?

Yup. He is not too far down my list. His encounter with Larry Robinson was one of most cowardly displays ever caught on tape.

You can add Bobby Clarke while you are at it. These three are often miscategorized as being ‘tough’. The latter (Messier and Clarke) always having the benefit of policemen on their side.

 

[Johnny Engine]

In other words, half the guys he fought were bigger than him and half the guys he fought were smaller.

Wouldn't that be standard for any non-goon player? (Also, Arnott was 6'5'', 220 lb. Bigger than Messier.)

Arnott was jumped by Messier - quite literally - in a move normally seen in WWE. Messier then suckered Arnott when Arnott was completely locked up by an official.

If it was Brad Marchand or Ulf Samuelsson, he'd be rightly blasted for it.

For the record, this is what dropyourgloves actually means by "unfair" - not height/weight disparity, otherwise every Tie Domi fight would have been unfair. Sucker punches, running tackles, all that that kind of stuff that doesn't involve handshakes and bowing to your sensei and whatnot.