Most Hated NHL Coaches
#10 Punch Imlach
In July 1958, The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Imlach as one of two assistant general managers. The other was King Clancy. However, the Maple Leafs did not have a general manager. Instead, they had a committee of which Stafford Smythe was the chairman. Under the committee’s discretion, Imlach would become the team’s third full-time general manager in November 1958. It didn’t take Imlach long to start making moves, only one week after becoming general manager. He fired coach Billy Reay. Reay had been offered the general manager position before Imlach but turned it down. Immediately after the firing, Imlach appointed himself the team’s head coach. this would be an augury of things to come.
Imlach was known as a ruthless overlord who would berate his players verbally, physically, and mentally.
Imlach makes this list as one of the most hated NHL coaches, largely based on his treatment of star captain Darryl Sittler. During the late 1970s, the Maple Leafs were a promising young team filled with many star players. Darryl Sittler, Lanny MacDonald, Ian Turnbull, Borje Salming, and others.
During this time, Imlach began to implement strict dress codes and heavy fines if his rules were violated. It is said that Imlach was strongly anti-union, and because of this, he had a lot of animosity towards Sittler because of his involvement in the NHL Players Association. This dislike led to Imlach undermining Sittler at every opportunity. He went so far as to go to court to get an injunction to prevent Sittler and teammate Mike Palmateer from appearing on the popular “Showdown” T.V. series. Imlach demanded that Sittler pay $500,000 to waive his no-trade clause. When Sittler refused, Imlach traded His best friend and star player Lanny MacDonald to the Colorado Rockies in an effort to spite Sittler, even though it was destructive to the team. In protest, Sittler removed the captain’s “C” from his jersey.
# 9 Marc Crawford
In December 2019, several former players presented tales of abuse under Crawford, Harold Druken, Sean Avery, Brent Sopel, Aaron Miller, and Patrick O’Sullivan. They accused Crawford of being unable to work with younger players and targeting certain players. They claimed he would often become verbally abusive and throw regular temper tantrums.
On May 22, 1997, during game four of the Western Conference Final between Marc Crawford’s Colorado Avalanche and Scotty Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings, With his team losing 6-0, Crawford flew into a fit of rage; he tried to climb the glass between the two benches to get at Bowman, all the while yelling and screaming expletives. After the incident cooled down, Crawford said, “I embarrassed the league, and, more importantly, I embarrassed my team.” “And for that, I am sorry. There’s no way you can justify anything like that. If you try, it’s wrong. I was wrong.” During the incident, with his eyes bulging, his arms flailing, and his violent verbal assault, Crawford was stung when Bowman told him, “I knew your father before you did, and I don’t think he’d be too proud of what you’re doing right now.”
The defining factor that gets Crawford on this list is the Steve Moore-Todd Bertuzzi incident on March 8, 2004. The attack on Moore was in retribution for a questionable hit that Moore had laid on star Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund in a previous game on February 16, 2004. In the next game between the two rivals, Todd Bertuzzi challenged Moore to a fight several times, but Moore would only laugh and skate away. Finally, in a rage, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore from behind, punching him and driving him face-first into the ice, causing him to sustain three broken vertebrae and a multitude of facial lacerations, ending his career. It was revealed that following the incident on February 16, Crawford had encouraged his players to exact revenge on Moore for the hit on Markus Naslund.
# 8 Robbie Ftorek
Some admire Ftorek for his no-nonsense business-like approach to hockey, and others not so much. For those who admire him, his detractors dislike him for the same reasons. Former team owner Bruce McNall said, “Robbie can come off as arrogant, but he is just the opposite.” He is so dedicated to what he is doing, and he is so concentrated on that that he comes off as distant sometimes. he’s probably one of the most down-to-earth guys I’ve ever met”.
Ftorek has been described as intense and fiercely private. Bruce McNall even accused him of being too honest. This has caused him to be misunderstood and interpreted as arrogant and self-centered. After being traded to Philadelphia, Former Los Angeles Kings player Jay Wells has said that “Ftorek could not tolerate players who disagreed with him, and the team philosophy is all talk because he plays favorites. Wells continued, “He wants guys who will do whatever he says because he thinks he is a God.” Larry Playfair, who also was traded, backed up Jay Wells’s sentiments when he said he thought he was traded because he dared to disagree with Ftorek.
It is hard to believe that Ftorek plays favorites when he prides himself otherwise. In a game in Detroit, he and Wayne Gretzky exchanged words. Ftorek later referred to Gretzky as one of the boy’s just another player of twenty, a piece of the puzzle. In a later game in Vancouver, Ftorek benched Gretzky for the start of the third period after Gretzky broke his stick on the back of the net in frustration after being responsible for giving up a late second-period goal.
# 7 Tom Webster
Paul Maurice, the current coach of the Florida Panthers, once played for the Windsor Compuware Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) under coach Tom Webster. Maurice said, “He was a hard coach, a complete hard-ass, which back in the 80s was completely okay, but a caring coach. He created a discipline in the room; there would be no bullshit, and the eyes would be on him.”
Webster makes this list because of two incidents. The first one came in a Los Angeles home game against the Calgary Flames on March 23, 1991. With the Flames players pushing and shoving in front of the King’s bench during a 3-0 deficit, Webster reached over the boards and knocked out Calgary Flames center Doug Gilmour. The second incident came on November 16, 1991, in a game against the Detroit Red Wings. Webster became so incensed by a call that he threw a stick from the bench at Kerry Fraser, hitting the referee in the skate. Webster received a 12-game suspension from the league.
# 6 Dale Hunter
Dale Hunter, need I say more? Dale Hunter is hated by many solely for his hit on New York Islanders Pierre Turgeon during the 1993 Patrick Division Semifinals. But how was he as a coach? Well, the same. As a player, he had a reputation as being a fierce competitor on the ice, quiet and reserved in the dressing room. As a coach, he has Hall of Fame credentials.
Dale Hunter was known as the little pest in the NHL, a reputation he carried into the OHL. In September 2005, Hunter received a four-game suspension from the OHL after failing to prevent one of his players from leaving the bench to initiate a fight during an exhibition game. On January 20, 2006, Hunter was again suspended for two games and a $5,000 fine for off-ice abuse of officials. That same year, Hunter was again fined $5,000 for criticizing officials after his London Knights were swept in the playoffs. In September 2006, Hunter was suspended for failing to prevent one of his players from leaving the bench to engage in a fight during a game.
# 5 Mike Keenan (Iron Mike)
There was a time when Keenan would have topped this list. Keenan’s resume is filled with resignations and dismissals from start to finish. He is known for coming in as a new coach and immediately dismantling the team, shipping players in and out like a revolving door. He has been plagued with personality conflicts and constant power struggles with players and upper management. He earned the moniker “Captain Hook” for his penchant for pulling his goalies several times during a game. While with the Philadelphia Flyers, he pulled goaltenders Ron Hextall and Chico Resch a cumulative five times in a single game. He often severely criticized his top players; no one was above the scrutiny. He once told Trevor Linden, “Why to be content to be a good player when you can be a great player?” While coaching a game in St. Louis, Keenan could be seen aggressively speaking in Brett Hull’s ear from behind him while Hull kept his eyes on the play on the ice, sneering and shaking his head in disagreement. In another incident with the Blues visiting the Buffalo Sabres, Dale Hawerchuk’s dying grandmother attended the game, hoping to see him play one final time. Keenan spitefully benched Hawerchuk, which prompted Brett Hull to scream at Keenan. Keenan retaliated by stripping Hull’s captaincy. Keenan showed no compromise, even criticizing Wayne Gretzky while in St. Louis. I once watched Keenan get into a verbal sparring match on air with hockey analyst and co-host Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet Canada, Hockey Central. It began with Kypreos attacking Keenan for his coaching style and why Keenan didn’t play him in certain situations. Keenan calmly said, “Nick, you just weren’t good enough.”
# 4 Ken Hitchcock (Hitch)
The knock on Ken Hitchcock is that he is an old-school coach who motivates players by finding ways to humiliate and anger them, hoping they will use that anger to motivate them on the ice. This coaching style is lost on today’s younger players, who respond to a more cerebral, emotional-based coaching style. Milan Lucic of the Calgary Flames played under Hitchcock while in Edmonton and is quoted as saying, “It’s the challenging part. Challenging your players,” said Milan Lucic, when asked to define the old-school coach. “Givin’ it to them a little more. In their face a little more.”
Hitchcock reasons that he can get the most out of his players by pushing their emotional buttons. He has no qualms about loudly and openly reprimanding players for their gaffs on the ice, especially if he can do it within earshot of other players. This tactic motivates today’s players to fail to grasp, let alone respond in the fashion Hitchcock hopes they would. Thus, he has alienated himself from many of this generation’s younger players.
# 3 Herb Brooks
Herb Brooks was a tough coach. His approach to the game was as cerebral as it was physically demanding. He expected nothing less than 100% from his players, and if they didn’t deliver, there was hell to pay. Brooks was the mastermind behind the “Miracle on Ice,” coaching Team USA to a highly improbable win against the juggernaut Soviet Team. Brooks subjected his team to endless bag skates, pushing them to the point of collapse through exhaustion. He once said, “We may not be the most talented team on the ice, but we will be the best-conditioned team on the ice.” Brooks knew that the players he assembled for the Lake Placid tournament didn’t like each other as they all came from different hockey programs all over the country; because of this, he conspired with assistant coach Craig Patrick to implement a good coach, bad coach system, where Brooks would be the bad guy and Patrick, the good guy. Brooks wanted the players to forget about their dislike for each other and unite as a team in their dislike of him. Whereby he could use that hostile energy as fuel against their opponents.
Herb Brooks almost never swore, and when he did, it felt odd.“You know how some guys swear all their life, and it sounds normal coming out of their mouths?” remembered one of his former players, defenseman Jack O’Callahan. “It sounded weird coming from him.” One of the few times Brooks swore was after defeating the Soviets and earning the right to play for gold against team Finland, trailing the Finns 2-1 after two periods; an infuriated Brooks confronted his players during the second intermission, pacing back and forth, pointed his finger and using four-letter expletives reminded his players that if they lost that game that they would take it their graves.
“He turned and headed toward the door,” forward Rob McClanahan recalled. “Then he turned back and said, ‘Your f—ing grave.’ And that’s all he said.” “He enunciated it,” O’Callahan added, breaking the curse word into two distinct syllables. “When he did use that word, it made us take notice.”
“He was going to be the bad guy,” Eruzione said. “You had a team full of players that were picked because they were the best players, and he thought it would be best suited if he was the bad guy and everybody hated him.”
“There were a lot of times we didn’t like Herb,” Eruzione said. “There was never once a time we didn’t respect him.”
“You didn’t always have to agree with what he was doing out there,” Johnson added. “You just had to trust him.”
# 2 Mike Babcock
Mike Babcock is considered one of the best coaches to coach in the NHL. He coached the Anaheim Ducks to the Stanley Final in his first year of coaching in 2003 and would later become the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, winning the Stanley Cup with them in 2008 and losing in the final in 2009. He finished his NHL coaching career as the bench boss of the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he coached for five seasons before being fired 23 games into the 2019/20 season.
Babcock’s downfall is attributed to his coaching style and his treatment of players. Players accuse him of verbal abuse and demeaning them. Examples of this are scratching healthy players before reaching a personal career milestone. He removed Mike Modano from the line-up just before he was to play in his 1500th game and later scratched Jason Spezza from playing an opening night game at the Air Canada Centre against his former team, the Ottawa Senators.
During Mitch Marner’s rookie season, Babcock asked the rookie to compile a list ranking his teammates in order of work ethic, and then he shared the list with the team. Johan Franzen, a former player who played under Babcock in Detroit, called him a “terrible man, the worst person I’ve ever met.” Chris Chelios confirmed Franzen’s statement, making mention of the verbal abuse they received from Babcock.
If a player ever truly hated Babcock, it was Mike Commodore. The two have a long history, and Commodore doesn’t pull his punches for his hate for Babcock. You can check out Mike Commodore and his hate for Babcock on his Twitter. It’s entertaining (20) Mike Commodore Mike Babcock – Twitter Search / Twitter.
Drum Roll
# 1 John Tortorella
John Tortorella is probably the most misunderstood coach in hockey. Many perceive him as an out-of-control hothead prone to temper fits and petty acts of aggression toward his players, such as playing backup goaltender Eddie Lack instead of Roberto Luongo at the 2014 Winter Heritage Classic. Or in 2009, several Capitals fans were heckling him from behind the bench in the third period of Game 5 in the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. Tort took a water bottle and threw it at the fan. He then grabbed a stick from Aaron Voros and tried to stick the fan with it through the space between the two panes of glass; the league suspended him for this. Tort has often been fined for speaking his mind about league officiating, receiving many fines, but as replays show, he was often right in his criticism. He was also the scapegoat in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade. Many felt that it was a personality conflict between the two. Tortorella displays a haughty demeanor when speaking to press members and is easily annoyed when asked questions that he feels are ridiculous. Thus, they portray only the dark side of his personality.
Tortorella has a reputation as a demanding coach who expects the player’s best effort; he always demands every ounce of effort he can extract from his players, and in the process, he alienates many of his top players.
Upon leaving Colombus, players were given the opportunity to evaluate Tortorella as a head coach; they all understood him as a coach and had nothing but respect for him. This is what Pierre Luc-Dubois had to say: “He’s a hard coach. I can take it. Nothing’s personal. I grew up with a dad who’s a coach, and he told me if a coach challenges you, it’s never personal; he wants what’s best for you. And that’s how I see ‘Torts,’ and I have nothing but respect for him.
An esoteric fact about Tort that belies his hostile reputation is that he is quite an animal lover. He has teamed up with Anthony Rothman (a sports talk show host of 97.1 The Fan in Columbus) to create “Hockey and Hounds,” a charitable organization that promotes pet adoptions through volunteer work.
Keep Your Stick on the Ice.
