Gary Bettman and his sissy patrol like to label any NHL player that drops the gloves as a no-talent hooligan that has no place in the game. For one thing, Gary Bettman has no place in the game. Another often overlooked fact is that some of the toughest players from the NHL are far from no-talent.
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Bob Probert scored 29 goals for the Detroit Red Wings in 1987-88 while finding time to sit out 398 minutes in the penalty box. Darren McCarty, another long time Detroit tough guy scored 55 goals and assisted on 72 for 127 points in 1991-92, his last year of junior with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League. Dave ‘Tiger’ Williams scored 35 goals for the Vancouver Canucks in 1980-81 while also accumulating 343 minutes in penalties.
Dale Hunter is yet another ‘goon’ that played a pretty fantastic game of hockey. Hunter sits in second place on the all-time NHL penalty minutes list with 3,563, behind only Tiger Williams. Over his 1,407 regular season NHL games, Hunter totalled 1,020 points. In his three years of junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League from 1977-78 to 1979-80, Hunter had 259 points in 188 games, including 110 points with the Sudbury Wolves in 1978-79.
Dale was a second round pick of the Quebec Nordiques at the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, 41st overall. His NHL career spanned from 1980-81 to 1998-99 with the Nordiques, Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche. Hunter served as team captain of the Capitals for the final five years he spent with the team. Washington retired Dale’s number 32.
With Hunter replacing Bruce Boudreau as the head coach of the Capitals early in the 2011-12 season, interest in Dale’s rookie card has been renewed. The 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee number 277 Dale Hunter rookie card is valued by Beckett Hockey Monthly at $8. Hunter’s coaching talent has been proven with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, a team he co-owns with brother Mark and Basil McRae. He coached the Knights from 2001-02 until his departure for Washington. In that time, the Knights were Memorial Cup champions, won the Robertson Cup and won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the regular season champion four years in a row – the only team to accomplish this.
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