NHL teams have traditionally reserved their fourth line for the troublemakers. Normally, fourth lines would be composed of the toughest of the tough to inject some energy into the game and create some momentum.
However, this has started to change as fighting has slowly gone down. This is partly due to the salary-crunching that was caused by the salary cap and the wave of analytics that has given the game a new look.
Fourth lines now are expected to contribute, not just throw big hits and call it a day. So let’s look division-by-division at the league’s best fourth lines.