Every hockey fan has a player they can't stand -- the one who scores against their team, runs their goalie or just wins too much. We set out to find the most hated NHL player in all 60 markets that make up hockey's heartland: 50 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces. The result is an interactive map of the league's villains, and a few names dominate it.
One name towers over the rest. Matthew Tkachuk is the villain of 14 different states and provinces -- the most of any player -- stretching from the Western Canadian provinces that still haven't forgiven the Battle of Alberta to the New England and Deep South markets where the Panthers are the team to beat. Brad Marchand (10 regions), Nathan MacKinnon (9) and Connor McDavid (8) fill out the league's most-despised tier.
Check out our most hated NHL team in every state for 2026 as well.
How We Found the Most Hated NHL Player in Each State
Picking a villain for 60 regions takes more than a hunch. Each pick blends sentiment analysis of team subreddits, rivalry logic, and recent playoff history to land on the player a given fanbase most loves to root against. To be clear, this measures fan animosity -- the rival you boo loudest -- not a referendum on anyone's character.
Markets without an NHL team default to the dominant regional lean and the league's marquee antagonists, while team markets key on the division rival or playoff tormentor that fans there know best. The snapshot reflects the 2025-26 season, so it skews toward today's active villains rather than all-time reputations.
The Most Hated NHL Players, Ranked by Territory
Thirteen players show up across the map. Here's how the league's most hated NHL players stack up by the number of states and provinces where they're the designated villain:
| Player | Team | Regions | Heartland of the Hate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew Tkachuk | Panthers | 14 | Prairie Canada, New England, Deep South |
| Brad Marchand | Panthers | 10 | Eastern Canada, Upper Midwest |
| Nathan MacKinnon | Avalanche | 9 | Texas, the Plains, the South |
| Connor McDavid | Oilers | 8 | West Coast, Mountain West, Florida |
| Sidney Crosby | Penguins | 5 | Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic |
| Tom Wilson | Capitals | 4 | NY, PA, NJ, CT |
| Jamie Benn | Stars | 2 | Michigan, Colorado |
| Mark Stone | Golden Knights | 2 | Utah, New Mexico |
| Patrick Kane | Red Wings | 2 | Missouri, Kansas |
| Cale Makar | Avalanche | 1 | Washington |
| Alex Ovechkin | Capitals | 1 | West Virginia |
| Corey Perry | Lightning | 1 | Tennessee |
| Adam Fox | Rangers | 1 | North Carolina |
Tkachuk's lead is no accident: he carries the residue of a bitter exit from Calgary plus the weight of beating Edmonton in consecutive Cup Finals. Marchand, a longtime Bruins agitator now with Florida, owns nearly all of Eastern Canada -- Quebec above all, where the Bruins-Canadiens feud never dies.
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The Biggest NHL Rivalries Driving the Hate
Most of this map is really a map of NHL rivalries. A handful of feuds explain the bulk of the villainy:
• 
Panthers-
Oilers: Back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025 turned this into the league's marquee rivalry. It's why McDavid is the villain across the West and Florida fans single him out — and why Tkachuk is loathed throughout Western Canada.
• 
Bruins-
Canadiens: Hockey's oldest blood feud powers Marchand's grip on Quebec and the Maritimes.
• Battle of Alberta: Tkachuk's forced exit from Calgary keeps him public enemy No. 1 across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
• 
Avalanche-
Stars: Dallas knocked Colorado out of the playoffs in back-to-back springs, making Stars captain Jamie Benn the villain in Colorado.
• 
Capitals and the Metro: Tom Wilson's agitator reputation makes him the pick across the New York-Philadelphia-New Jersey corridor.
Regional Breakdown: Where Each Villain Rules
Cluster the map and clear territories emerge:
• Western & Prairie Canada: Tkachuk country, top to bottom.
• Eastern Canada & the Upper Midwest: Marchand's domain, anchored by Quebec and Ontario.
• Texas, the Plains & the South: MacKinnon, the Central Division superstar opponents love to chase.
• West Coast & Mountain West: McDavid, the Pacific powerhouse everyone is trying to dethrone.
• The Northeast corridor: Wilson and the Capitals, with the Penguins' Sidney Crosby owning the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic just beyond.
The single-region villains tell their own stories: Cale Makar in Washington, Alex Ovechkin in West Virginia, Corey Perry in Tennessee, Adam Fox in North Carolina and Patrick Kane across the old Blackhawks-Blues border of Missouri and Kansas.
Most Hated Teams vs. Most Hated Players
Fan hate usually flows through a face. The most hated NHL team in a region tends to be whichever club employs its most hated player -- the Panthers (Tkachuk and Marchand), the Oilers (McDavid), the Capitals (Wilson), the Penguins (Crosby) and the Avalanche all draw their widest negative sentiment exactly where their stars do.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most hated NHL player right now?
By our 2025-26 mapping, Matthew Tkachuk is the most widely hated player in the NHL, drawing the villain label in 14 of the 60 states and provinces -- more than any other player. Brad Marchand ranks second at 10 regions, followed by Nathan MacKinnon (9) and Connor McDavid (8). Tkachuk's reach spans his former home in Western Canada, where the Battle of Alberta still stings, all the way to New England and the Deep South.
Who is the most hated NHL player of all time?
That debate usually centers on career agitators like Brad Marchand, Matt Cooke and Sean Avery, plus polarizing superstars such as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Our map measures current sentiment for the 2025-26 season rather than all-time reputation, which is why active villains like Tkachuk and Marchand dominate the present-day picture.
What is the biggest rivalry in the NHL right now?
The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, who met in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025, have become the league's headline rivalry -- and it powers a lot of the hate on this map. The Bruins-Canadiens feud, the Battle of Alberta and the Avalanche-Stars grudge (Dallas eliminated Colorado in consecutive springs) round out the most heated matchups.
Who are the dirtiest players in the NHL?
"Dirtiest" and "most hated" overlap but are not identical. Players with the heaviest on-ice agitator reputations include Tom Wilson, Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk. Being hated, though, can also come from simply being a dominant rival -- which is why superstars like McDavid and MacKinnon land on this map without the enforcer label.
What is the most hated NHL team?
Team-level hate tends to track the star players on this map. The Panthers (home to both Tkachuk and Marchand) and the Oilers (McDavid) draw the widest negative sentiment, with the Capitals, Penguins and Avalanche close behind in their respective regions.
Data & methodology: RotoWire NHL Fandom Analysis — sentiment analysis of team subreddits, rivalry logic and recent playoff history. 60 regions (50 U.S. states + 10 Canadian provinces), 2025-26 season.
