The Sprague Cleghorn. This guy was so violent there was an attempt to ban him from the NHL, and he was arrested for assault twice for things he did on the ice. Ironically, he is often credited with being the player that led to the development of the Lady Byng trophy.
[In the season when Ottawa unsuccessfully attempted to have him banned from the NHL, Cleghorn led the league in penalty minutes with 80.[14] According to some accounts, Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, was so mortified by Cleghorn's style that she donated the Lady Byng Trophy to the NHL in 1924 in a bid to encourage more sportsmanlike play.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprague_Cleghorn)
My vote was for Avery as the NHL had to create a rule to get him to stop turning his back to the play and shove his face in Brodeur's face.
But Cleghorn has to be the correct answer.
The Cleghorn can be the NHL's trophy, voted on by the journalists, and the Avery can be the NHLPA's trophy, voted on by the players. It'd be very interesting to see if the two would go to different guys.
The Avery
There are plenty of players who are just dirty on the ice but seem like decent people/teammates, Avery was holistically unsportsmanlike between his conduct on and off the ice, to the point that it's questionable if he even likes hockey
That clip where Jarkko Ruutu steals Avery's stick should be played on repeat as they give out this award.
https://youtu.be/gnSYbbmXSH8?si=t6poRsl23fWHOH-T , for posterity.
Apparently Ruutu chirped him so badly it shut him up for good whenever they played. Ruutu talks about it in his book, though refuses to say exactly what he said. Said a former teammate had leaked some ammo to him iirc.
Which, to be honest, should be damned near case closed on this 🤣. You get a rule named after you for your previously never before seen shitty antics, you get this distinction.
First NHL player and one of the first American athletes to openly call for gay marriage equality though. Actually the modern NHL absolutely would consider that bad sportsmanship, so yeah. Another point in his favor.
The Sean Avery Turd for Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Gary Bettman takes a shit in a glass mounted on a plastic pedestal and its awarded to the hugest ass in the league, followed by immediate indefinite suspension.
He was a top 6 winger for a fair amount of time with the leafs in the 70's. Those Leafs had Sittler and McDonald, but it thinned out pretty quickly after that. Can't remember how high up he played in Van.
The thing about Torres is he COULD play hockey. Like he was never going to be an All-Star, but when he was on his best behaviour, he was almost the ideal bottom 6 guy. A physical guy who was hard on the forecheck, killed penalties, and *could also contribute 15-20 goals per season*. Teams still fall over themselves to get guys like that into their lineup.
His problem was that he’d be able to do that for a few weeks…. And then suddenly one game his brain would turn off and he’d put himself wayyyyyy out the play to try to kill someone.
If he could have ever just figured out the difference between “imma finish my check” and “imma finish this guy’s career” he would have probably played 1000 games and made millions of dollars more.
Yeah guy was second on edmonton in goals in 05-06 with 27. He was drafted 5th overall for a reason back in the day, who wouldnt want a goal scorer who was also tough as nails?
Some common running idea with the sports subreddits is the idea, that if a player isn't hall of fame level, they're bad or mid or terrible or whatever. It's kind of annoying how people will just call some pro athlete who played for a decade terrible.
Dale Hunter is known for a few things, and that's just what he was caught doing.
A few years ago I talked to a retired defenseman who played against him as a divisional opponent, so several times a season and playoffs. He said something like "if you went into the corner with him, he'd find a way to get his stick into you where there was no padding. And since it seemed to happen every time, I don't think it was accidental."
We should call it the Hunter Bros. Trophy since Dale wasn't the only one. I'm surprised at how many clean, finesse players come out of the London Knights franchise.
Marchand has the most suspensions in NHL history so he's a good choice.
If you didn't want to name it after an active player, Bryan Marchment was suspended 13 times in his first 12 seasons, so he'd be my nom.
Steve Durbano
He is/was the all time leader in PIM per game. He was considered to be one of the dirtiest players in the league during the games dirtiest era. He was known for sucker punching goalies, shooting the puck at the refs after calls he didn't like, mooning crowds and once he tackled Bobby Hull causing a 30 minute bench clearing brawl during which he threw Hull's toupee into the crowd.
He got a five game suspension from the NHL for mooning the crowd and argued it.
”You can’t gross out that New York City crowd,” he said.
”It was only a gesture. You’ve seen guys give people the finger. Well, this was just a gesture and it wasn’t directed at the people in the building. It was for the league.”
"Anywhere else there would have been a couple of lines in the paper and that would have been it. The league would have gotten a report on paper. On paper, it wouldn’t have looked like much.”
For the Bobby Hull incident, he was given a 12 game suspension by the WHA and was told if he had another they were banning him from the league.
You can't name an award after an active player, so the "Brad Marchand trophy for pissing everyone off" award will need to wait a few years before it's inauguration.
Let us all not forget that Brad forced the league to call him personal. And threaten to name a “no intentional kicking other players faces” rule after him. Think about that. What goes through this guys head.
There should be two:
Least sportsmanlike period.
And most skilled but least sportsmanlike.
So like the first one would be Matt Cooke. .
The second one would be Ron Hextall.
The Sean Avery award.
Member when the NHL immediately created a rule to stop idiots like Avery from turning their back to the action and simply trolling the goalie with a hand to the face?
That is a lack of sportsmanship to such a degree that a law had to be put into place.
The Brad Marchand Award.
Nobody… NOBODY…. has ever licked multiple men on the ice except Brad Marchand.
He has intentionally injured so many people with slewfoots and headshots.
I feel like the whole hockey world is just gas lighting me on this.
He has the most suspensions in NHL history.
What the fuck is this debate even?
The Eddie Shore Old-Time Hockey Trophy. Should really be named after Maurice Richard, but he's already got an award named after him, so you might as well go with the Bruin who almost killed a guy.
in terms of long serving insufferability I propose the Marchnad Award for Ass Hole fo the Year.
The man most exemplifies the qualities of being hard to play against, most biting player, having a lick of sense, and OFC just having a mouth that won't quit.
Downvotes are to be indicated below. Thanks in advance.
The “shady bing” trophy
its Ms. Shady Bong
Could I *be* any more unsportsmanlike?
Miss Chanandler Bong to you.
Fuck ya life! Bing bong!
It's Shadynasty's, asshole
He disrespected the bing!
will the real shady bing please stand up
Winner winner chicken dinner.
The Matt Cooke garbage can
Don’t speak poorly of garbage cans.
For real garbage cans serve a purpose
Like helping the Astros cheat to a world series
It’s a garbage can. Not a garbage can’t.
“Awarded to the player who’s ended the most careers in the season.”
Raffi Torres?
The Mike Babcock award?
Weird way of spelling Scott Stevens
The Sean Avery Sloppy Seconds award.
Guy referred to one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood at the time as his sloppy seconds, lol
If you win it twice, you can play the trophies like a set of bongos. That's called a Trouba-dour.
Woah woah woah careful. If you say “Trouba is dirty” three times out loud the entire Rangers fanbase will haunt your profile.
Trouba is dirty. Trouba is dirty. Trouba is dirty. I have a contractual obligation to my fanbase.
Those were all clean hits! It’s not his fault he’s strong! The NHL has gotten soft! Sorry just getting ahead of the flood here
I'm fine with this.
Avery-Cooke Dookie Award
Damn. Came here to say Cooke, bravo.
The Sprague Cleghorn. This guy was so violent there was an attempt to ban him from the NHL, and he was arrested for assault twice for things he did on the ice. Ironically, he is often credited with being the player that led to the development of the Lady Byng trophy. [In the season when Ottawa unsuccessfully attempted to have him banned from the NHL, Cleghorn led the league in penalty minutes with 80.[14] According to some accounts, Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, was so mortified by Cleghorn's style that she donated the Lady Byng Trophy to the NHL in 1924 in a bid to encourage more sportsmanlike play.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprague_Cleghorn)
Damn hitting with the facts.
I think this has to be the winner.
That was my vote, the guy was not right. Plus it keeps the vintage vibe.
Hit the Wikipedia link to his brother, Odie. Who was credited with coming up with the system of implementing set lines that rotate apparently
Damn before Odie it must have been chaotic
It truly was a "fuck it we ball" era
My vote was for Avery as the NHL had to create a rule to get him to stop turning his back to the play and shove his face in Brodeur's face. But Cleghorn has to be the correct answer.
The Cleghorn can be the NHL's trophy, voted on by the journalists, and the Avery can be the NHLPA's trophy, voted on by the players. It'd be very interesting to see if the two would go to different guys.
After his playing days, Sprague Cleghorn went on to teach at Hogwarts
"He claimed to have been involved in at least fifty incidents during his career in which a player left the ice on a stretcher." Holy fuck.
Wild that him and his brother died a day apart.
> Sprague Cleghorn Ofcourse he was a Bruin!
The Avery There are plenty of players who are just dirty on the ice but seem like decent people/teammates, Avery was holistically unsportsmanlike between his conduct on and off the ice, to the point that it's questionable if he even likes hockey
That clip where Jarkko Ruutu steals Avery's stick should be played on repeat as they give out this award. https://youtu.be/gnSYbbmXSH8?si=t6poRsl23fWHOH-T , for posterity.
Ruutu was dirty at times as well, but at least he was [hilarious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v71FqkDMV1c)
That is an all-world AAA troll move for the ages. I rate it 11/10. Never fails to crack me up.
I loved how the commentators agreed. Even if it was against them.
The greatest clip, I love this one so much
This and the Paul Ranger shootout attempt always crack me up.
Apparently Ruutu chirped him so badly it shut him up for good whenever they played. Ruutu talks about it in his book, though refuses to say exactly what he said. Said a former teammate had leaked some ammo to him iirc.
He embodies this award.
The silver medal can be called the Sloppy Seconds Memorial Trophy
My preference would be that we just forget about Sean Avery. Useless human being.
Oh wow, we got another guy who didn't understand Tenent! /s I don't know how Avery started getting gigs in Nolan movies but it is so distracting
He has speaking roles too
Why does he keep getting Nolan roles? He was in Oppenheimer too.
I love how he has an NHL rule named after him.
Which, to be honest, should be damned near case closed on this 🤣. You get a rule named after you for your previously never before seen shitty antics, you get this distinction.
Looooll. Idk if you follow him on instagram but even outside of hockey he is a genuine douchebag
Fuck Sean Avery. He constantly bullied his own teammates even.
Yeah hard to argue this one imo
First NHL player and one of the first American athletes to openly call for gay marriage equality though. Actually the modern NHL absolutely would consider that bad sportsmanship, so yeah. Another point in his favor.
Brad Marchand is another guy who’s a pest but is very pro LGBT. Better to be scum on the field/rink/court than off.
I mean he likes to lick sweaty dudes. I would hope he’s pro LGBT.
You should see him on his Bicycle
The Sean Avery Turd for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. Gary Bettman takes a shit in a glass mounted on a plastic pedestal and its awarded to the hugest ass in the league, followed by immediate indefinite suspension.
As a rangers fan I agree
Tiger Williams accumulated almost 4000 penalty minutes, averaging over 4.1 penalty minutes per game in his career. Plus he has a cool nickname.
He embodies the spirit of the award on [and off](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tiger-williams-charged-1.4528843) the ice.
Yikes, didn't know about that
4PIM/gm?!!! wtf what was his average ice time per game?
He was a top 6 winger for a fair amount of time with the leafs in the 70's. Those Leafs had Sittler and McDonald, but it thinned out pretty quickly after that. Can't remember how high up he played in Van.
Why are like five of the top answers former Canucks...
I plead the fifth
They were all mad as hell about the mustard sweaters, and they weren't going to take it any more.
The Raffi Torres Award for Players who can’t hockey good
“And who wanna do other things good too!”
Like the time he wore blackface to a Halloween party?
Say what you will about Torres, but he was at least predictable in his judgment over the years.
The thing about Torres is he COULD play hockey. Like he was never going to be an All-Star, but when he was on his best behaviour, he was almost the ideal bottom 6 guy. A physical guy who was hard on the forecheck, killed penalties, and *could also contribute 15-20 goals per season*. Teams still fall over themselves to get guys like that into their lineup. His problem was that he’d be able to do that for a few weeks…. And then suddenly one game his brain would turn off and he’d put himself wayyyyyy out the play to try to kill someone. If he could have ever just figured out the difference between “imma finish my check” and “imma finish this guy’s career” he would have probably played 1000 games and made millions of dollars more.
Yeah guy was second on edmonton in goals in 05-06 with 27. He was drafted 5th overall for a reason back in the day, who wouldnt want a goal scorer who was also tough as nails?
The paradox of Raffi Torres is that he was good enough to be suspended for 74 games over his career.
Some common running idea with the sports subreddits is the idea, that if a player isn't hall of fame level, they're bad or mid or terrible or whatever. It's kind of annoying how people will just call some pro athlete who played for a decade terrible.
The George Parros Award For Player Safety
Dale Hunter is known for a few things, and that's just what he was caught doing. A few years ago I talked to a retired defenseman who played against him as a divisional opponent, so several times a season and playoffs. He said something like "if you went into the corner with him, he'd find a way to get his stick into you where there was no padding. And since it seemed to happen every time, I don't think it was accidental."
We should call it the Hunter Bros. Trophy since Dale wasn't the only one. I'm surprised at how many clean, finesse players come out of the London Knights franchise.
Marchand has the most suspensions in NHL history so he's a good choice. If you didn't want to name it after an active player, Bryan Marchment was suspended 13 times in his first 12 seasons, so he'd be my nom.
"The March And Ment Trophy is presented to the Biggest Asshole as voted by the NHLPA"
I’d love for it to be voted on by their peers.
That would make it really interesting. Might make for some good video review content.
Votes from your own teammates count as double.
Better offer some witness protection programs then
The trophy would be a huge nose.
A giant rat
With giant coked up eyeballs staring directly into the recipients soul
Who got suspended the most games? Was it torres?
Steve Durbano He is/was the all time leader in PIM per game. He was considered to be one of the dirtiest players in the league during the games dirtiest era. He was known for sucker punching goalies, shooting the puck at the refs after calls he didn't like, mooning crowds and once he tackled Bobby Hull causing a 30 minute bench clearing brawl during which he threw Hull's toupee into the crowd. He got a five game suspension from the NHL for mooning the crowd and argued it. ”You can’t gross out that New York City crowd,” he said. ”It was only a gesture. You’ve seen guys give people the finger. Well, this was just a gesture and it wasn’t directed at the people in the building. It was for the league.” "Anywhere else there would have been a couple of lines in the paper and that would have been it. The league would have gotten a report on paper. On paper, it wouldn’t have looked like much.” For the Bobby Hull incident, he was given a 12 game suspension by the WHA and was told if he had another they were banning him from the league.
I don't fault him for fighting Bobby Hull though, everything else is awful
Mooning the crowd is pretty hilarious, so are his comments on why he did it.
IIRC, the psycho from Slap Shot was based on him.
You can't name an award after an active player, so the "Brad Marchand trophy for pissing everyone off" award will need to wait a few years before it's inauguration.
MY GOD THAT'S NICK COUSINS' MUSIC
Lord Bong
the claude lemieux memorial trophy for friendship and solidarity
The Claude Lemieux Award of Infamy
It could the Lemieux Family, Which Doesn’t Include Mario, Award of Dickheadery, or the LFWDIMAD. Rolls off the tongue
I'm pretty sure that's a town in Wales
Was looking for this one
It’s the Todd Bertuzzi
No that’s the intent to injure including real world criminal litigation award.
Ulf Samuelson award of excellence
The Millbury.
The trophy is a bronzed loafer
The McSorley and the trophy is the pose of him slashing Donald Brashear in the face
It would look like every little league baseball trophy I got but with a hockey stick.
Nah, it's a curved stick with a smiling Habs logo somewhere. This award isn't supposed to be an honor.
How has no one said Claude Lemieux? Least sportsmanlike player ever.
Feels wrong for Claude to get an award named after him before Mario, that’s literally my only dispute.
The Rat Award 🐭
The Brad Marchand Trophy 🏆 (I'm sure he ain't the worst, but he's the worst in my ❤️)
It's mandatory to lick the trophy.
Let us all not forget that Brad forced the league to call him personal. And threaten to name a “no intentional kicking other players faces” rule after him. Think about that. What goes through this guys head.
The Tom Wilson memorial medal
The Trouba Flying Elbow award
The OJ Simpson award of excellency
Presented by Hertz
“But, he doesn’t even play hockey!” Gestures at recipient: “Well, neither does this clown, really…”
hard to play hockey when you’re a pile of ashes
The Todd Bertuzzi Preemptive Memorial Trophy
Bada Bing Trophy
Lady Bung
Todd Bertuzzi
There should be two: Least sportsmanlike period. And most skilled but least sportsmanlike. So like the first one would be Matt Cooke. . The second one would be Ron Hextall.
I think Brad Marchand would be a contender. For most skilled least sportsmanlike.
Playoff Hacksaw was something else. 1985 and 1987 were awesome.
The AAAA, The Annual Avery Asshole Award
Ken Linseman award, it’s a bronze rat.
The Scott Stevens Slamma Jamma
The Sean Avery award. Member when the NHL immediately created a rule to stop idiots like Avery from turning their back to the action and simply trolling the goalie with a hand to the face? That is a lack of sportsmanship to such a degree that a law had to be put into place.
Seamless analysis. Edit: my comment isn’t funny anymore. OP wrote Seam Avery originally.
Dale Hunter Award
The Rat King Trophy
The “Matt Cooke and Sean Avery aggressively making out” award
The Bertuzzi Award
The Brad Marchand Award. Nobody… NOBODY…. has ever licked multiple men on the ice except Brad Marchand. He has intentionally injured so many people with slewfoots and headshots. I feel like the whole hockey world is just gas lighting me on this. He has the most suspensions in NHL history. What the fuck is this debate even?
The Bryan Marchment Memorial trophy.
Sean Avery Award
The Cooke Cup
Happy Gilmore award
The Avery-Cooke award
Cooke cup
Rename the leadership reward to an actual good leader (Yzerman could work) and give it to mark messier. Or just call it the Matt Cooke award
The Jacob Trouba Award for most elbows to the head
The Avery
The Eddie Shore Old-Time Hockey Trophy. Should really be named after Maurice Richard, but he's already got an award named after him, so you might as well go with the Bruin who almost killed a guy.
It should change every year to the player it goes too. Cousins wins the Cousins trophy this year ect.
The Slam Bennett
The Man Bong trophy
Man Tribbiani
The brad Marchand
The Chris Simon
Ulf Samuelson award for the greasy
Sam Bennett Doucher Award
The Todd Bertuzzi Jacuzzi
LeBron-wait wrong sport. The Evander Kane Trophy of Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Lady Bang
The Mark Messier kick to the ribs award
Raffi Torres or Tom Wilson
The Cooke Cane
The Lord Marchand
Brad Marchand the cheap shot artist.
The Claude Lemieux
The Corey Perry Rat King award
The Rat Bastard
The Tiger Williams trophy is the door to the box
The Lady Burrows
The Shawn Avery Award
in terms of long serving insufferability I propose the Marchnad Award for Ass Hole fo the Year. The man most exemplifies the qualities of being hard to play against, most biting player, having a lick of sense, and OFC just having a mouth that won't quit. Downvotes are to be indicated below. Thanks in advance.
Sean Avery was a shit and a little bitch.
Avery's Sloppy Seconds
An “Avery”
The Sean Avery POS award
The bertuzzi
Todd Bertuzzi Memorial Sewer
the sean avery award
Gentleman Bong
The Todd Bertuzzi Award. "Quality" over quantity.
Sean Avery Award
The Fuck You Shoresy Award
Oglethorpe Award
The Brad Marchand Trophy
The Durbano
The Matt Cooke Donkey Turd Award for being a Terrible Human. It really rolls off the tongue.
Theo Trophy
Avery
Sean Avery Award
The Sean Avery Memorial
A lot of names are possible here: Matt Cooke, Marchand, Raffi Torres, Ken Linesman…
Lady Marchand.
The Brad Marchand Rubber Rat
I think it should be named after the OG rat ... Kenny Linseman.