Fighting has been a part of NHL hockey since the very beginning of the sport. Some teams have even formed their identities around it, like the “Broad Street Bullies” of Philadelphia and the “Big Bad” Bruins. Hockey players are known for being tough and some players have formed entire careers out of being good fighters.

While sometimes these enforcers they can get a bad reputations for being goons who can’t skate, they do play a major role on certain teams. The role of enforcer should not be taken out of the game of NHL hockey.

Enforcers are not the most skilled hockey players in the NHL but a lot of them become fan favorites for other reasons.

Phoenix Coyotes forward Paul Bissonnette has the least amount of ice time out of anyone on his team and has only scored six goals in his five years as a full time NHL player. He plays in around half of the games per season and is a healthy scratch when the team does not need his toughness.

Despite his lack of playing time he is the most popular player on the Coyotes and has 493.6K followers on Twitter, more than any other NHL player.

Who doesn’t love an underdog? And that’s what type of players these enforcers are.

Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton made a name for himself fighting in the AHL and finally got his big break at the age of 30 when he joined the Bruins. Despite his fourth line playing time he became a fan favorite in Boston for his tough style of play and impressive fighting skills. Thornton knows that he is not on the team to make big plays and score thirty-plus goals a season. On an episode of Behind the B, a documentary series on the Boston Bruins, while joking around with teammate Loui Ericksson, who was concussed by a hit delivered by Brooks Orpik, Thornton said, “They don’t pay me to score goals, they pay me to protect you.”

I think that people can connect to players like Thornton and Bissonnette with their self-deprecating senses of humor more than a lot of other athletes. Hockey players make less money than professional football, basketball, and baseball players, and these enforcers usually make a lot less than their goal scoring teammates. But night after night, fight after fight, they put their bodies on the line protecting their teammates and I think that protective quality is something hockey fans love to see in players.

In any type of fighting sport like MMA or boxing concussions are to be expected, and no one seems to care about the number of concussions those athletes are receiving. The debate about fighting in hockey just seems to grow and grow even though fighting has been in the game since the very beginning.

Former NHL enforcer Jim Thomson said in an interview with sportsillustrated.com, “and it’s because of the violence; it’s because of the fighting; it’s because of the concussions. We have to clean up the game of hockey.”

When you look at how many fights there are in the league every year though there are not many serious injuries occurring. More concussions seem to be happening from illegal hits to the head, not from fights. If anything should be scrutinized it should be the lack of punishment players receive for concussing other players with illegal hits.

Enforcers know what kind of risk they put themselves in when they fight on a regular basis, just like a boxer would. Shawn Thornton told Katie Strang of ESPN, “I don’t know the numbers so I probably shouldn’t [say] but I think a lot more concussions are happening from head hits than fighting, but any time anyone gets punched in the face and gets hurt, people jump all over it.”

This might seem like a biased statement coming from Thornton, who concussed Brooks Orpik in a fight earlier this season. But Thornton has also been a victim. Last year he fought Sabre’s enforcer John Scott and had to miss several games after with a concussion.

Fighting can obviously be dangerous especially on ice, and concussions are a definite possibility every time these enforcers battle it out, but they know what risks they are taking. Hockey is a physical sport and any time an NHL players steps onto the ice he is in risk of getting a concussion, not only the enforcers. If they want to fight, I say let them fight.