I used to be really active on hockeyfights.com back when it was in its heyday 20+ years ago. There were many a really, really knowledgeable hockey fans that frequented the site and discussed all of the old school fighters.
There was often a lot of disagreement over most of who was the best, or who had the hardest punch etc…
The problem with Fraser was unfortunately there were very few of his fights from Vancouver that were on TV. Most of his fights were from his Chicago days.
But, most all of the knowledgeable posters on the site agreed Fraser was one of, if not the hardest puncher in league history.
I believe he is the only guy to beat both Bob Probert and Joey Kocur while they were in their prime Bruise Brothers glory. This part I could be wrong about, but it may even have been in the same game where he beat one of them, and as would always happen if you were so fortunate to beat Kocur, you were going to have to answer to Bob Probert.
If you watch most all of the fights available of Fraser are virtually the exact same: the two combatants circle one another ready to throw punches (as you see above in the Farrish fight) but then the opponent grabs on and turns it into a wrestling match, throwing punches from in tight.
There were tougher guys than Fraser (although he’s still a legit all timer) but it was very rare you saw someone stand back and trade punches with him.
You’d see it more often in his early Vancouver days before word had spread around the league how hard he could punch. But once word had spread through the league, his fights were often boring as guys tied up his right hand immediately.
There is one fight out there of a legit fighter (Benn Wilson who many called the league champion at the time) trading punches with Fraser and beating him. Wilson was considerably bigger than Fraser, and on hockeyfights.com was generally regarded as the 2nd best fighter of all time behind Probert.
My Dad and his brothers played minor hockey with Curt Fraser. My Dad always talks about how insanely strong he was as a teenager - used to do snap curls with 150+ lbs on one hand at the age of like 14, and had shoulders as big as your head.
I’ve heard people say he was super strong for his size.
He was a Type 1 insulin dependent diabetic and had a lot of problems putting on weight/keeping his weight up (at least when he was in his Canuck days they used to talk about that). He was 190 pounds and would fight and beat almost everyoybody.
Loved Fraser. My favorite Canuck of all time.
