Hockey is a sport known for its gritty, intense and aggressive players. If you put on the skates and step out onto the ice of an NHL arena, you’d better expect to take some hard hits, a few sticks to the face and some nasty taunts from your opponents.
Putting hits on other players is part of the game, for sure, and NHL players aren’t exactly considered to be the most “family friendly” among professional athletes, but sometimes a player exhibits a pattern of behavior that can be considered outside the boundaries of fair play — and even dangerous. These types of players tend to earn a title that’s both an insult and, paradoxically, a badge of honor in the sport: they’re “dirty.”
And hockey being hockey, there’s no shortage of “dirty” players in the NHL right now. Here’s a look at which active NHL players are considered the most deserving of the title.
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What Makes an NHL Player “Dirty”?
So, what exactly does an NHLer need to do to earn the “dirty” label?
A dirty player in the NHL is typically someone who exhibits a repeated pattern of using aggressive tactics, excessive physical force and other line-crossing or illegal behavior to hurt or intimidate their opponents.
Dirty players are most often the ones seen resorting to cross-checking, late hits, boarding and spearing to get an edge in the game or, worse, intentionally injure opposing players.
The Dirtiest Active Players NHL Players (2025)
Without further ado, here’s the NHL’s dis-honor roll of the dirtiest players currently rostered to a team. Interestingly enough, many of these players are also considered to be some of the most talented on the ice.
1. Brad Marchand – Florida Panthers
Brad Marchand is considered by most to be the undisputed king of dirty play in the NHL.
He’s had many nicknames over his long NHL career: The Rat. The Little Ball of Hate. “A Pest.” If you need even more clarity on who most people consider to be the NHL’s dirtiest player, and possibly one of the sports all-time dirtiest, he was literally voted dirtiest player in the league in a 2020 poll of other players.
Marchand’s on-ice antics are the stuff of legend in the NHL during his long career with the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers. Over the course of his career, he’s been suspended and fined numerous times for repeatedly flouting the rules, commonly dropping sucker punches on defenseless players, slew-footing them, spearing them in vulnerable spots and stomping on their sticks with his skate blade. He’s even famously kissed and licked opponents during scrums and once removed his gloves to throttle another player around the neck.
Beyond his physical foul play, Marchand is well-known as one of the league’s most prolific trash talkers, using creative and line-crossing taunts and heckles to get into other players’ heads and off-balance their game. In 2022, he became the most-suspended player ever to grace the ice.
Marchand left the Bruins for the Florida Panthers in 2025, joining a rogue’s gallery of NHL villains like Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, two of his peers on this list.
2. Tom Wilson – Washington Capitals
The Capitals’ feared enforcer, Tom Wilson is considered by many to be one of the league’s dirtiest players and the supporting evidence is right there in his penalization rates: he currently leads the league among active players in penalty minutes!
Wilson is a big, physical and aggressive player who has become nearly synonymous with on-ice violence and serious violations. He’s known for frequently resorting to late hits, illegal checking and boarding. In some cases, Wilson’s conduct has seriously injured other players, including breaking their jaws and inflicting concussions. He’s been suspended numerous times, including a 14-game suspension in 2018 for an illegal hit to the head.
3. Sam Bennett – Florida Panthers
Sam Bennett is another aggressive Panthers player who made headlines recently after he appeared to deliver an elbow strike directly to the back of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz’s head on his way past the net during their second round series in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Stolarz later vomited on the bench and had to be hospitalized with a head injury.
And that’s not the first time Bennett has seriously injured a Leafs player in the postseason: in 2023, Bennett knocked Matthew Knies out of the playoffs entirely when he smashed his head into the glass. Together with Tkachuk, and now Marchand, Bennett is considered one of the dirtier players on the Panthers, and he’s part of the reason the Cats are currently considered the league’s most villainous team.
4. Jamie Benn – Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn, the Stars’ captain, is also well-known for his heavy-hitting style, and specifically for his penchant for cross-checking (using the shaft of the stick with both hands on the stick and the blade off the ice to check an opponent) opponents. He’s seriously injured other players with cross-checks before, including a hit that ended the Detroit Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin’s season and left him in a cervical collar in 2021, and another delivered to Vegas Golden Knights star Mark Stone’s head — after he had already fallen to the ice — during the 2023 playoffs.
Benn has mostly been able to avoid serious disciplinary action for his conduct, though he did serve a two-game suspension for the hit on Stone.
5. Matthew Tkachuk – Florida Panthers
The Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk, along with his brother, the Ottawa Senators‘ Brady Tkachuk, became national hockey heroes and household names for their elite performance during the NHL-hosted 4 Nations Face-Off international hockey tournament earlier this year. But outside of that notoriety, Tkachuk is arguably one of the most reviled players in the league, as pointed out by Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.
Like his new teammate Marchand, Tkachuk is considered a perennial agitator and pest, notching multiple suspensions for his tendency to board, spear and generally agitate his opponents. Tkachuk joined the Panthers in 2022, and he’s been a major factor in their success since then, including a Stanley Cup win in 2024, but his reputation precedes him in many fans’ minds.
6. Jacob Trouba – Anaheim Ducks
Jacob Trouba’s reputation as a dirty player is rooted in his frequent borderline hits, many of which target the head or come when opponents are in vulnerable positions. He has been criticized for repeatedly dropping high hits on players. One such hit saw former Oiler Jujhar Khaira carried out of the arena on a stretcher and another laid Timo Meier out.
Trouba’s checks are often heavy and late. Though he’s only been suspended twice, his aggressive style is often pointed to as an example of reckless and dangerous play.
7. Corey Perry – Edmonton Oilers
Tom Wilson might be the king of racking up penalty minutes, Corey Perry is another frequent flyer to the penalty box. He’s in second place for penalty minutes. While most players use their knees to keep their balance, execute pinpoint maneuvers and drop down to drive a one-timer into the net, Perry likes to use them as battering rams. He’s been suspended for kneeing other players, and he routinely gets creative with his stickwork, using his twig to harass and hit his opponents just as often as he uses it to handle the puck.
Perry is also well-known as someone whose trash talk, like Marchand’s, quickly gets under his opponents’ skin.
8. Evgeni Malkin – Pittsburgh Penguins
Penguins veteran Evgeni Malkin is a bona-fide superstar, and his sheer talent often obscures his other, less glamorous side. Malkin, like Perry, likes to get a bit aggressive with his stickwork. He’s been fined and suspended multiple times for these tendencies, and he’s spent the third-most minutes in the penalty box among active players, behind only Tom Wilson and Corey Perry.
Malkin is also physically imposing, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing in at 210 pounds. That mass enables him to put some truly earth-shattering hits on his opponents, and he puts that ability to use quite often.
9. Nazem Kadri – Calgary Flames
Nazem Kadri has a long history of suspensions for illegal checks to the head, especially in the playoffs, with suspensions for cross-checking the Bruins’ Jake DeBrusk in the head in 2019 and boarding the St. Louis Blues’ Justin Faulk in 2021.
These suspensions, levied right in the middle of a team’s most important stretch of the season, have cost his team one of their best players when his presence mattered most: in a high-stakes playoff game.
10. Radko Gudas – Anaheim Ducks
Another Duck to make the list, Radko Gudas is known for his heavy, sometimes reckless physicality and aggressive style of play. He’s been suspended multiple times for hits to the head, boarding and slashing, and he’s another common sight in penalty boxes around the league.
Gudas’s checks are often late or targeted at vulnerable players, leading to injuries and frequent penalties. His aggressive approach makes him a feared opponent, but also a liability for his team at times.
Dishonorable Mention: Brendan Lemieux
Though he isn’t currently rostered with an NHL team, the iconic Claude Lemieux’s son, Brendan, has seen plenty of professional action, and, like his father, he’s gained a reputation as a master agitator and an artist at drawing penalties. Lemieux’s play is so dirty that he was once suspended for biting the Senators’ Brady Tkachuk while playing for the Kings.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the dirtiest hockey players in the NHL?
Right now, Brad Marchand, Tom Wilson, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and Corey Perry are considered the dirtiest active players in the NHL.
What makes an NHL player dirty?
An NHL player is considered dirty when they exhibit a consistent pattern of risky, reckless, illegal and dangerous behavior on the ice designed to gain an unfair advantage or intentionally injure other players.
Which team is considered the dirtiest in the NHL right now?
Right now, many analysts and fans consider the Florida Panthers to have the highest number of team members known for their dirty play.
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