[FitzG]

On their best day Howe or Fontinato couldn't hang with Bruins Ferny Flaman. Howe calls Flaman the toughest defenseman he ever played against. 6'3" Jean Beliveau says the only player I worry about on the ice is Flaman,when I go near him i'm always looking over my shoulder. Sportswriter Ed Fitkin writes :"There are several good fighters in the NHL but the man i'd least like to tangle with,if I was an opposing player is Ferny Flaman of the Boston Bruins. He says, Ferny is one of those pier-8 brawlers,hard as the prow on a ship and possessor of a mean streak that turns him into a no-holds bared battler." Another wrote one night Kent Douglas decided he would take on Providence Reds player/coach Ferny Flaman,a man with the reputation of having never lost a fight.Big mistake,Flaman toyed with Douglas for a sec and then gripped him by the seat of his pants and the nap around his neck and casually hurled him into the net where his skates got tangled in the mesh. Douglas never bothered Flaman again." One ex-NHL ref I spoke with said that when Flaman went at it everyone just got the hell out of his way. He held all Bruin penalty minute records until O'Rielly came along. Flaman is in the HOF and currently scouts for the New Jersey Devils. If anyone wants the articles to back this up,send me a private email and i'll send them over. Videoguy also knows well of Flaman.

Originally Posted by EDDIESHORETOEBLAKE

Beautiful thread/post Merlin . . . here's my list from a thread done awhile back . . .

". . . Remember, this isn’t so much about who the best fighters were necessarily (in hindsight), but who were the “acknowledged” “Champs” of the league by peers, broadcasters, journalists, fans, etc. for the time frames . . .

In the 40s you had Black Jack Stewart . . .
The 50s, why don't we call Gordie Howe the "Champ", and Lou Fontinato a close second . . .
The early 60s had Orland Kurtenbach, with Terrible Ted Harris, the No. 1 contender . . .
The mid to late 60s saw, from most accounts, John Ferguson and then, perhaps Wayne Cashman . . .
The early 70s - Dan Maloney . . .
The mid 70s - Dave "the Hammer" Schultz and then Clark Gillies . . .
The late 70s – Gillies or Fotiu with a little bit of Nystrom or Jonathan thrown in and then Wilson
The early to mid 80s – Wilson or Playfair or Dave Semenko . . .
Mid 80s – Dave Brown, perhaps over (2) Jim Kyte and (3) Dave Richter(?)
The mid to late 80s to the early to mid 90s - (1) Probert, (2) Brown, (2a) Kocur, and for a year, maybe Troy Crowder . . . and for one game Tie Domi – at least he thought so . . . to a lesser degree, perhaps Marty McSorley staked a claim
The mid to late 90s . . . (1) Twist, (2)Simon, (2a) McCarthy, and (4) Grimson . . .
The late 90s to present . . . (1) Brashear, (2) Laraque and (3) Grimson . . .
. . . [this, I believe] for the most part, accurately reflect who the consensus "Champs" (and numbered "contenders") were for those periods of time???

BTW, I suppose if you had to break it down to a true linear lineage, I suppose it would be fair to say – Eddie Shore to Black Jack Stewart to Lou Fontinato to Gordie Howe to Kurtenbach to Ferguson to Cashman(?) to Maloney to Schultz to Gillies to Wilson to Playfair to Kyte(?) to Brown to Probert to Crowder to Probert to McCarthy(?) to Twist to Grimson(?) to Laraque to Brashear . . ."