Carolina Hurricanes – Torrie Robertson
Another team on the list that had multiple good selections, but no great ones, was the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes. There were physical, and even mean, players throughout their history, but very few that could call themselves a true enforcer/fighter. This is where Torrie Robertson stands above the rest.
Robertson, while not overly well-known, was one mean son of a gun. He was not the biggest man on earth, standing at 5-foot-11 and weighing in at under 200 pounds. Despite his lack of size compared to some other more intimidating figures on this list, he didn’t let that get in the way of letting other teams know he meant business.
Robertson played with the Whalers between the 1983-84 and 88-89 seasons. During this time he would only have less than 100 penalty minutes in two seasons, with 98 in 20 games during the 1986-87 season and 84 in 27 games during the 1988-89 season.
Robertson would rack up seasons of 198, 337, 358, 98, 293 and 84 penalty minutes respectively. This would help him on his way to becoming the Hartford/Hurricanes all-time leader in penalty minutes. And it is safe to say that a good deal of these minutes spent in the sin bin were a direct product of dropping the gloves.
Unlike other names on this list, Robertson didn’t come anywhere near pushing the 1,000 game mark in his career. He would finish his bruising 442-game career with 49 goals and 99 assists to go along with his 1,751 penalty minutes. Plenty enough to get him on this list and considered as one of the toughest of his generation.