10 biggest villains in the NHL — and when they’ll be in Utah

Who doesn’t love a good villain?
As explained in a previous article, enforcers don’t have the role they did in the 1980s — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still pesky, mean guys that everyone loves to hate. Utah Hockey Club fans were ecstatic about Utah’s two fights in their first home game on Monday, and with guys like Liam “Spicy Tuna” O’Brien on the team, they might get above-average physicality this season.
Every NHL team plays in every NHL building every year, so every NHL pest will visit Utah this year, barring injuries.
Here are the meanest, most hate-able guys in the NHL, along with when they’ll be in Utah. If you’re wondering which games you should buy tickets to, these might be good ones.
First up is Matthew Tkachuk. He’s the type of player whom you love if he’s on your team and you despise if he’s not.
Tkachuk drew more penalties than anyone else in the NHL last season. That means he frustrates people so much that they commit infractions on him, more than anyone else. He also infuriates opponents on the scoresheet, where he’s typically good for about 100 points per year — and he does it all while fiercely chomping on his mouthguard, which flaps in the wind as he skates.
Fans around the league were dismayed to see Tkachuk raise the Stanley Cup with his Florida Panthers in June.
Matthew, along with his brother, Brady Tkachuk, are the sons of Phoenix Coyotes legend Keith Tkachuk — someone who was also known for frustrating his opponents. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The Panthers will be in Utah on Jan. 8 for a nationally televised game.
You probably assumed this was coming. Brady Tkachuk is the slightly younger, slightly less pesky, slightly less skilled version of Matthew.
Brady drew the third-most penalties of anyone in the NHL last season. He utilizes chirping — trash talking — to annoy opponents, who often end up taking penalties to get him back.
Like both his brother and his father, Brady punishes his opponents on the scoresheet. He tends to score 70-80 points per season.
Matthew’s old teammate and Brady’s new teammate, Nick Cousins, established himself last season as one of the most hated players in the league. Unlike a lot of players on this list, Cousins is despised for not fighting. On several occasions last year, he delivered cheap shots and then proceeded to play victim, avoiding the unspoken obligation to have to fight afterwards.
Chief among Cousins’ cheap shots last season was his hit on Arizona/Utah defenseman Juuso Valimaki. While Valimaki was on his knees, Cousins drove his head into the boards at full speed. Jason Zucker hit Cousins in defense of his teammate and, to the dismay of many fans, Zucker was the only recipient of supplemental discipline.
This prompted Kevin Bieksa to go viral calling Cousins out on the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.
The two teams played again three weeks later, but Cousins did not dress for that game. He might have to answer for the hit when the Senators come to Utah.
Utah fans won’t have to wait long to see these two in action. They and the Ottawa Senators will be at the Delta Center on Oct. 22.
Love him or hate him, Matt Rempe, “The Rempire State Building,” has one of the coolest nicknames in hockey history. It’s cool because he’s one of the tallest players in the NHL and he plays for the New York Rangers, who play down the street from the Empire State Building.
Rempe might be the closest thing to a true enforcer in today’s NHL. Through his 17 career regular-season NHL games, he’s scored two points. One of them — his only regular-season goal — was from a shot that hit him and went in.
The 22-year-old immediately won over the hearts of Rangers fans when he fought bonafide tough guy Matt Martin during his first NHL shift. To add to it, it was an outdoor game against the Rangers’ storied rivals, the New York Islanders.
Two games later, in a game against the Rangers’ other hated rivals, the New Jersey Devils, Rempe received a match penalty — the most severe penalty there is — for hitting Nathan Bastian in the head. He wouldn’t be suspended for that hit, but when the two teams faced each other again 18 days later, an elbow to the head of Jonas Siegenthaler landed him a four-game ban.
Rempe went on a tough guy tour to start his NHL career, fighting all the biggest opponents he faced. It amounted to 12 fights in 17 games, but it likely would have been more if Rangers management hadn’t told him to dial it back a bit.
Rempe has never played against Liam O’Brien at any level, so they have yet to fight. O’Brien told the Deseret News that he doesn’t have specific intentions to fight Rempe, but if something happens that necessitates a fight, he’d be willing to drop the gloves.
Jacob Trouba, Rempe’s captain, is hated even by Rangers fans. He takes a lot of criticism for delivering big, forceful hits that sometimes catch guys in the head. When Trouba is on the ice, opponents have to keep their heads up.
Rangers fans only hate Trouba because they think he’s overpaid. He used his no-movement clause to prevent the Rangers from trading him this summer, much to the dismay of New York City. Can you blame him, though? His wife, a medical doctor, has a residency at a hospital in New York and she would not be able to accompany him to another city if he were to get traded.
The Rangers visit Utah on Jan. 16. They also host Utah HC in the first week of the season, as Utah plays at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 12.
Nobody relishes the fact that people hate them more than Brad Marchand does.
The captain of the Boston Bruins is the NHL’s all-time most suspended player. He’s known for delivering cheap shots and licking his opponents.
Marchand seems to have found the fountain of youth. He’s 36 years old, but he scored 67 points in each of the last two seasons. His career high in points came at age 31, when he hit 100.
“The Rat” will be at Utah’s second home game: Oct. 19.
A lot of fanbases hate the Edmonton Oilers. They have two of the best players in the world, and they also have two of the biggest pests.
Corey Perry is entering the twilight years of his career, but he’s still up to the antics that earned him the nickname “The Worm.”
From filling opponents’ gloves with water to delivering cheap shots, people have lots of reasons to dislike him. Those are amplified by the fact that, for most of his career, he was a top offensive player in the NHL.
Perry scored 50 goals and 98 points in the 2010-11 season, earning him both the Rocket Richard Trophy and the Hart Trophy. He also holds the record for most teams played for in the Stanley Cup Final. He won the Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in his second NHL season, and in recent years he has lost in the Final with the Oilers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens and the Dallas Stars.
Evander Kane, a teammate of Perry, would also be on this list, but he’s reportedly going to miss a large portion of the season with a number of injuries, which stemmed from a hernia last season.
The Oilers will be in town on Nov. 29.
There aren’t a lot of hateable goalies, but that designation certainly fits Jordan Binnington.
Unlike most goalies, who avoid confrontation at all costs, Binnington gets right in the middle of scrums. He’s known to throw punches with his blocker — a thick piece of equipment that can do real damage. He has attempted to fight other goalies on a number of occasions, though the officials have yet to allow it to happen.
The Blues will visit the Delta Center on Feb. 2.
Tom Wilson seems to spend more time suspended than playing. He tends to let the intensity of the game get to him, resulting in frequent dangerous hits. That being said, he has toned it down as he’s gotten older.
Wilson is a big fighter. According to HockeyFights.com, he has scrapped 95 times in the NHL, including preseason, regular season and playoff games. He even fought Utah HC defenseman Robert Bortuzzo in 2019.
On top of his physical play, Wilson chips in offensively at a good middle-six rate. He’s a team player and people seem to love him off the ice. Just don’t get him mad.
The Washington Capitals, Wilson’s team, will be in Utah on Nov. 24.
Nazem Kadri told the CBC in 2019 that he really enjoys playing the villain. That’s probably a good thing because he’s good at it.
He plays on the edge of legal and not, but he sometimes crosses the line. He has been suspended more than a few times, including three times in the first round of the playoffs.
But no matter how physically he plays, there’s no debating his skill. He scored 29 goals and 75 points for the Calgary Flames last season and he was a big part of the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup championship in 2022.
The Flames make two trips to Utah this year: once on Oct. 30 and again on April 1.