Meet Chris "Knuckles" Nilan.
It is Enforcer Week after all at The Hockey News, highlighting the game's toughest fighters, bruisers, and pests. The 97-year-old New York Rangers club has the fabric of the city sewn into its uniforms, blue collar, blue sweaters.
Fighters have garnered fame under the bright lights on Broadway such as Lou Fontinato, Tie Domi, and Sean Avery. Others have captured the hearts of one generation but are forgotten by the next, like Chris Nilan.
Following a Stanley Cup Championship in 1986 with the Montreal Canadiens, the notorious bruiser arrived in New York. Manhattan would enjoy the show, simply referring to the brawler as “Knuckles.”
Nilan played in front of the New York faithful for three seasons, racking up 332 penalty minutes in 85 games. That's an average of 4 minutes of penalties per game. His 11 goals were a nice addition to his all-natural brass fists.
After doing the tango 39 times in New York, he was traded to his hometown Boston Bruins in 1990.
Nilan holds the record for the most penalty minutes by an American-born skater and is one of nine players in the history of the game to total 3,000 career penalty minutes.
The former fighter is also open about his toughest battles off of the ice, an addiction to heroin. He visits local schools to discuss how he learned from his life and mistakes. Nilan speaks about it in this interview:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNa6jP0g_pw[/embed]
Overcoming his addiction, Nilan hosts his own podcast “The Raw Knuckles Podcast”, as he and his girlfriend reside in Montreal.
The podcast is available on Apple, Youtube, and Spotify, you can listen to an episode featuring former New York Ranger Ron Greschner here: