The Daily Faceoff Show: Who is the best hitter in the NHL?

Radko Gudas gave us a taste of old-school hockey on Throwback Thursday, as he took out Kirby Dach with a monster hip check in the Florida Panthers’ game versus the Chicago Blackhawks. It was big, fast and, most importantly, clean.

A hit like this got our Frank Seravalli and Matt Larkin thinking on The Daily Faceoff Show: who is the best hitter in the NHL right now?

Matt Larkin: I think about technique when you ask that question. You saw there with Radko Gudas that there’s a fine line between a good hip check and a low bridge, and he did it the right way there. And I remember a conversation I had with Scott Stevens last year about the art of hitting, and he was saying with the rule changes, he thinks maybe there won’t be another “him” in the NHL. I don’t know if that’s necessarily true.

You’ve got to watch some tape of Jacob Trouba. I think he is the guy you have to really watch out for on the ice. He’s got the perfect ability to time a hit, to line up a player. He’s sort of like that football safety, you’ve got alligator arms if you’re an NFL receiver catching the ball over the middle, the way Trouba can line people up and deliver the picture-perfect, open-ice hit in the chest, often clean. To me, if we’re talking pure ability to lay guys out in open ice, it’s Jacob Trouba.

Frank Seravalli: You said “art of hitting” from Scott Stevens. Apparently Tom Wilson missed that book on his list of required reading growing up, because the caveat with Tom Wilson is that he crosses the line frequently. But if we’re going on pure devastation, Tom Wilson is a human missile, I don’t know any better way to explain it. He absolutely crushes guys, and I think that’s his force, his size, everything that comes with it, his vision to see the hit.

We can talk about his ability to stay within the lines in terms of it being clean or not, but a big reason why he gets so much attention is because he hits with such force that maybe takes it beyond a lot of levels that guys can get to in this league so he just generates so much more attention because of how hard he hits.

Matt Larkin: Yeah, I think you’re bang on there. And I think if you look at the history of the suspensions, and the fact that he lands on the right side sometimes and other times he doesn’t, it’s very similar to Dustin Byfuglien’s career. When you’re that big, you just can’t help it if you do damage, even if it’s clean. People are up in arms no matter what Tom Wilson does on the ice because he could be picture perfect, following the rulebook to a tee, and he’s still going to hurt somebody with his hits because he’s just that big and that strong.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I love watching Tom Wilson, I think any team would like to have him. He also makes for some interesting content once a year or so when we debate his latest hit that crosses the line.

You can watch the full video here…