This Philadelphia Flyers enforcer is considered one of the sport's toughest.

The Philadelphia Flyers have a history of sporting tough and mean players. While the NHL has far fewer enforcers today than in the past, the Flyers still possess one of the toughest forwards, Nicolas Deslauriers.

Deslauriers, 33, continued to be one of the NHL's scrappiest players in 2023-24, posting 89 penalty minutes and 188 hits. He also had 11 fighting majors on the campaign, and according to hockeyfights.com, Deslauriers won or at least tied in each of them. 

Needless to say, Deslauriers is easily one of the most effective enforcers in the sport, and he received some praise because of it. Former NHL enforcer Stu Grimson ranked Deslauriers as the third toughest player in the league for the NHL Network. 

Grimson listed Ryan Reaves (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Kurtis MacDermid (New Jersey Devils) ahead of Deslauriers for his list. However, Deslauriers was ranked ahead of Mathieu Olivier (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Liam O'Brien (Utah Hockey Club) on the list. New York Rangers' rising enforcer Matt Rempe notably did not make the cut.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONTv8Wyx8PI[/embed]

Overall, it is not surprising to see Deslauriers get some appreciation for his toughness. It will be fun to see how much of an impact he makes with grittiness in 2024-25 from here.  

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