Why do NHL teams keep enforcers around in today’s day and age?
Well, in short, they don’t. Fighting is still around, and it probably always will be, until the players collectively change their minds about it. But, truthfully, the role of a pure fighter has been replaced… or, rather, it’s been altered.
The hired goons…
…of the old Smythe Division back in the 1980s are all but extinct in 2020’s NHL. However, that’s not to say physicality has lost its value—but there now needs to be a balance between those attributes and real hockey ability.