NHL Hard Hitters: Most Penalty Minutes in a Career

When you watch Hockey at the highest level, the game can get so competitive that players are willing to draw blood. No matter the state of the match, players will, one way or another, end up in a scuffle, causing them to sit in the penalty box for a timeout for two or five minutes.

In the NHL, there’s no shortage of players willing to draw penalties whether their team needs it or not. So, in this article, we highlighted five of the NHL’s hardest hitters, specifically, players with the most penalty minutes in a career. We’ll mention factors such as the number of penalties accumulated, what teams they played for and how many minutes overall they spent in the penalty box.

#5 – Bob Probert – 3,300 minutes in the penalty box

The long-time Detroit Red Wings left-winger holds one of the records for most penalty minutes in a career in NHL history, with exactly 3,300 minutes of sitting in the timeout corner. Probert would also play for the Blackhawks, and in his 935 total career games, he’d commit 964 penalties, a brutal player to play against whether you’re winning or losing.

Regardless of the outcome of each game, Probert is number five on our list of players with the most penalty minutes acquired in a career, only behind four other individuals.

#4 – Marty McSorley – 3,381 minutes in the penalty box

McSorley played for multiple teams, including the Penguins, the Oilers, the Kings, the Rangers, the Sharks and the Bruins. Overall, he’d play 961 games between those six teams, heading to the penalty box for 3,381 minutes of his career, giving him one of the records for most penalty minutes in a career within the NHL.

Interestingly, Probert earned 964 penalties, nearly equal to McSorley’s 961 games, and McSorley would earn 933 penalties compared to Probert’s 935 games. Even so, Marty McSorley acquired more minutes in the box, 81 more to be exact, which is why he’ll forever be remembered as one of the NHL players with the most penalty minutes.

#3 – Tie Domi – 3,515 minutes in the penalty box

Tie Domi comes in third on the list of most penalty minutes acquired throughout his career, with only 50 fewer penalty minutes than Dale Hunter, his record-breaking successor. Domi played for three different teams, the Maple Leafs, Rangers and Winnipeg Jets. Setting Domi apart from all other competition on this list is the fact that while he played 1,020 total games and only had 864 total penalties (more games played and fewer penalties conceded than McSorley and Probert), he still managed to accumulate 3,515 penalty box minutes, meaning he most likely received more 5-minute major penalties for fighting than the others (including an incident where he tried to fight a fan).

Either way, you have to earn your penalty minutes in some way, and Domi did it by squaring off face-to-face, making him gather the most penalty minutes in a career, coming third to only Dale Hunter and Dave Williams.

#2 – Dale Hunter – 3,565 minutes in the penalty box

You may see Dale Hunter as an experienced penalty box occupant, but he was also a veteran of the game of hockey, playing 1,407 total games throughout his career for the Quebec Nordiques, the Capitals and the Avalanche. The number of penalties Hunter committed was almost equal to the number of games he played (1,347), making him a bad man to play against.

Overall he’d accumulate 3,565 penalty minutes, which isn’t terrible considering the number of games he played, but still, he’ll go down as one of the players with the most penalty minutes in a career.

#1 – Dave Williams – 3,971 minutes in the penalty box

When we talk about mean men, Dave Williams may fit on that list. The man played for multiple teams, including the Maple Leafs, Canucks, Kings, Red Wings and Whalers, participating in 962 games. In those sub-1000 hockey games, Williams committed 1,155 penalties, much less than Dale Hunter, so considering how he accumulated 3,971 minutes for penalties, it must be related to the number of 5-minute majors he received for fighting.

To put it into perspective, that many minutes is equivalent to spending 66 hours sitting in the penalty box! While not known to be as aggressive as Tie Domi, Williams still managed 3,971 minutes in the penalty box, making him the current record holder for most penalty minutes in a career throughout NHL history.