The top 5 likeliest villains of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs
You could be forgiven for thinking the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs feel a bit less villainous than years past.
After all, the Florida Panthers, winners of the last two Stanley Cups and employers of Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Matthew Tkachuk, along with some other odious characters, have had a down year and won’t have the chance to get up to their usual shenanigans this postseason. Even tried-and-true bad guys like Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson and St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington will be absent from these playoffs.
But don’t fret, something tells me we’re not in for a total lovefest. The Stanley Cup playoffs have a way of generating their fair share of antagonism, and there are more than a few players worthy of animosity that populate this playoff field.
So, to get prepped on where you could be directing your derision this postseason, let’s list the five players (in alphabetical order) most likely to draw the ire of their opponent’s fanbase in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs:
Radko Gudas, D (Anaheim Ducks)
Now in his 14th NHL season, nobody could question Gudas’ bona fides as one of the league’s premier hatchet men. The Czech national is the NHL’s leader in penalty minutes among active defensemen, and has been suspended five times for a total of 26 games over the course of his career. Just this year, he’s injured Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby at the Olympics and Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews with dubiously ethical hits, the latter of which ended Matthews’ season and got Gudas suspended for five games. Last time Gudas was in the playoffs, while playing for the Panthers, he nearly sent Leafs forward David Kampf into another dimension with a massive hit well after the whistle had blown.
Radko Gudas DECKED David Kampf. 😵
Gudas missed some time with a lower-body injury, but he recently returned and will be ready to do his usual bull-in-a-china-shop routine in the first round.
Rasmus Dahlin, D (Buffalo Sabres)
You might be surprised to see Buffalo’s smooth-skating, cherubic Swedish defenseman on this list, but Dahlin can get nasty with the best of them. This season, he was given a game misconduct for boarding on Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras, and last season, he was fined for a vicious high stick on Panthers forward Anton Lundell. Beyond Dahlin’s discipline-worthy actions, there’s a belligerence to his game that gets under people’s skin.
Twice this season, an opponent saw fit to jump on top of a prone Dahlin and whale away, with each of Florida’s Brad Marchand and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel losing their temper on him. And let’s not forget when Penguins star Evgeni Malkin decided to respond to a Dahlin crosscheck by slashing him in the side of the head. Dahlin being as good as he is will only serve to make him more hateable to an opposing fanbase, as there’s nothing worse than seeing someone take a cheap shot against your team and then score the game-winning goal.
Brady Tkachuk, LW (Ottawa Senators)
We may not have Matthew’s shit-eating grin to infuriate us, but his brother Brady’s primal roar is no small substitute. Brady’s game, which involves plenty of physicality and net-front combat, lends itself to controversy. It would be no surprise if he got away with an uncalled goaltender interference at some point, and he might not be opposed to letting an elbow accidentally collide with a goalie’s helmet. We know he’s capable of crossing the figurative line, as he was recently given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for slashing Buffalo Sabres forward Beck Malenstyn while sitting on the bench.
Tkachuk somehow got through last season’s first-round series against the Leafs without getting into too much trouble, so he’s probably due to create some chaos this time around. Plus, the prospect of him gloating with his brother on their podcast after a contentious victory is deliciously despicable.
Let’s give an honorable mention to Senators forward Nick Cousins, who’s an old-school pest that got fined for shooting pucks at Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz in warmups before Game 3 of last season’s first-round series.
Corey Perry, RW (Tampa Bay Lightning)
This list would be incomplete without Perry, who is entering his 18th postseason having been a thorn in the side of his opponents in each one. Ever since leaving the Ducks in 2019, Perry’s role has been defined as the playoff-tested, bottom-six winger that can score and agitate in equal measure. While he’s never faced any league-levied discipline in the playoffs, Perry is an expert at taking full advantage of the postseason’s more lenient whistle. Whether it’s frustrating goalies in front of the net on the power play, or spearing a defenseman’s ribs just when the refs aren’t looking, Perry has arguably become the NHL’s preeminent playoff villain. At 40 years old, this could very well be his last hurrah, so expect him to pull out every last dastardly trick from his sleeve.
Sidney Crosby, C (Pittsburgh Penguins)
I know, I know. Crosby is probably the most beloved player in the NHL right now. But anytime an athlete gets as much adoration as Crosby does, there will always be a not insignificant number of fans that resent him for it. As someone who grew up rooting against the likes of Derek Jeter and Patrice Bergeron, I know how maddening it can be to watch a player torch your team while receiving nothing but praise from the media.
Plus, for as many accolades Crosby has collected over the years, nobody’s ever confused him for a Lady Byng candidate. The Penguins captain is no stranger to applying a wicked slash or crosscheck in a post-whistle skirmish.
With Pittsburgh drawing Philadelphia in the first round, Crosby will be reflexively reviled by Flyers fans, who have turned hating Crosby into a generation-spanning tradition at this point. And if the Penguins ever get some favorable calls from the referees, conspiratorial cries about the NHL “rigging it for Sid” will come in loud and clear.
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