Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper
...The enforcer roles isn't done till fighting has been eliminated from the game, right now the way the rules have been structured has handcuffed what once was...
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Well, I guess this hinges on an accepted definition, but it seems pretty widely accepted that a "hockey enforcer" is a player who has a single skill-set that holds his place on the team, at the expense of his inability to play the game at the NHL level. An enforcer is a player who receives ice time because he fights. An enforcer is a player who when not fighting, is virtually entirely ineffective or detrimental to his team's success.
There are fighters in the NHL who can also play the game. I don't think anyone would consider them "enforcers." While I agree that there will likely always be fighters in the game—barring an outright ban on fighting, I think it is fairly abundantly clear that the enforcer's role (according to the definition I provided above) is presently obsolete, and not likely to be reprised.