Hockey is first and foremost a team sport. It’s not one player that leads the team to a championship, it’s the collective efforts of everyone on the roster. You need every part of the machine to be working and doing its part in order to bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup. Some people get this concept extremely well and even go out of their way to be a team player. Others, however, are not so good at letting the ego’s go and putting the team first.
Here are the 10 Worst Teammates In the NhL That Everyone Keeps Hush-Hush About.
10. Pierre-Luc Dubois
To Dubois’ credit, no one truly knows what went on in the Winnipeg locker rooms. However, the fact is that he’s been on three teams in his career, and requested trades from two of them. He was drafted by Columbus and started his career there before getting into an altercation with head coach John Tortorella. Tortorella is no stranger to player altercations, but Dubois requested to leave and he was granted that request by being traded to Winnipeg.
Dubois spent some good time in Winnipeg until the 2022-23 season, where turmoil began to brew resulting in him once again requesting a trade out. The rumors are that he was hard to deal with in the locker room and quite toxic, and him requesting another trade shows he’s not above abandoning a team. Hopefully, they are just rumors.
9. Tony DeAngelo
DeAngelo has had his fair share of bad teammate allegations. Before he even made it to the NHL there were multiple reports of him using racial slurs towards his teammates. At the NHL level, that behavior hasn’t changed. Multiple reports of him being hard to deal with, insulting teammates, using racial slurs, and even starting a fight with former Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. No matter who you ask, Tony’s teammates are most likely going to say the same thing. He’s a locker room cancer and no one wants to deal with him.
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8. Matt Duchene
This one is a little less known as it wasn’t super prominent in the media. At one point in time, Duchene was a top forward in the NHL during his time in Colorado. However, after multiple seasons that showed Colorado missing the playoffs, Duchene felt his talents were best suited elsewhere and requested a trade. The trade process was painfully slow, and Duchene decided to make it known that he no longer felt a part of the team. His teammates reported that he completely isolated himself from the rest of the team, doing his own thing and making sure they knew he wasn’t a part of them.
The reports also say that he and Nathan Mackinnon didn’t get along very well. Because he outcasted himself from the team, his chemistry with the other players obviously took a massive hit and it showed on the ice. Evidently it got so bad that it was almost impossible for him and the other players to even coexist around each other.
7. Tyler Seguin
Since moving to Dallas, Seguin appears to have calmed down. However, during his time in Boston, he was not known as a model teammate. In fact, he even went as far as to supposedly have an affair with his teammate, Nathan Horton’s wife. If that wasn’t enough he just straight up wasn’t a good team player. He would consistently miss practices and other team events, even getting scratched in the playoffs for missing a team breakfast. He would constantly be out late partying which affected his hygiene and play. It got so bad in 2013 that the team had to put security at his door during the playoffs. There’s a reason he was shipped to Dallas.
6. Ryan Suter
For years Suter was hailed as a leader and a terrific teammate. Then suddenly he was bought out at the end of the 2022 season, and details of his childish and vindictive behavior came springing forward. On Nashville, he would constantly butt heads with Jason Arnott and Shea Weber. He would constantly complain about other players and his own playing time, as well as discuss salaries and complain about those too. Suter was deemed uncoachable, and a headache to deal with in Minnesota, but it was kept under wraps to prevent the star from leaving. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin spent one season with it and decided it was time for a change.
5. Zach Parise
Suter wasn’t the only one who was deemed uncoachable and a headache. In New Jersey, Parise was a superstar and a leader. In Minnesota, he was an arrogant ego who thought he knew better than anyone else. He may not have been as toxic as Ryan Suter, but his blatant disregard for the coaching and believing himself to know better still hurt his team. His contract was bought out as well, the GM deciding that they were better off suffering the cap hits than they were dealing with a negative locker room.
4. Phil Kessel
Kessel has for a long time been one of the best shooters and goal-scorers in the league. That’s about all he is though, a goal scorer. Kessel cares more about the flashy plays than the small things that help a goal happen or a team win, because his name on the score sheet is more important. He’s also notoriously lazy on defense. That’s not how a good teammate plays. It’s worth mentioning that he’s one of the worst divers in the league, and consistently embellishes to get a penalty. The issue is, if it doesn’t get a penalty it leaves him out of position.
3. Zac Rinaldo
To his credit, Rinaldo was pretty liked by teammates off the ice. That doesn’t change the fact that his style of play was absolutely terrible for team play. He’s known as one of the dirtiest players in the NHL which means he is constantly taking penalties and making his team shorthanded. He refused to follow COVID policies which took him out of his team’s roster. To top it off, he just wasn’t a good enough player to make up for all of that. He rarely scored goals or got assists. He wasn’t much of a playmaker. His entire role was to hit other people, be it dirty or not. He might spice up a game from time to time, but that’s not a role that adds much to the team.
2. Nazem Kadri
It’s safe to say that Kadri has not made many friends during his NHL tenure. His notoriously dirty style of play has made him hated by players and officials across the league. The worst part of it is, that he refuses to change even though his penalties and suspensions take him away from the team who need his skill. These days, Kadri can’t even back up his dirty style with good play, as he plays like a guy who just showed up to beer league because his wife made him. He looks mentally checked out, doesn’t play defense, and yet still continues to go for the dirty hit whenever he can. Players all around the league hate him and now teammates are starting to hate him too.
1. Evander Kane
This one is a no-brainer. Anyone who would willingly put Kane on their team is a moron. Yes, he’s a phenomenal hockey player. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s a bad teammate and an even worse person. Never mind the constant partying and missing team events and practices. Never mind the gambling addiction and the betting on his own NHL games. Never mind the constant suspensions for off-ice activity.
Never mind him sleeping with anything that moves. Or maybe even his constant altercations with teammates. He’s also arrogant and refuses to not be the star of a team. Anywhere he goes, Kane brings a collection of bad media, bad behavior, and overall just bad teamwork.
