It used to be a major part of the game. Back in the 80's teams would draft players stickly on their size and fighing ability, regardless of if they could skate, pass or shoot. Rembember the saying "I went to fight last night and a Hockey game broke out." Then players like Gretzky, Lemiux, Yzerman, Messier etc... came around and made the game about skill again. Sure there are some players in the NHL who are labled as "scrappy" and those players are usually the ones who get into the fights. But any one of those "fighters" can also skate circles around the minor league players below them. If they couldn't, they would be out of the NHL and back on the farm team.
Fighting in hockey is nothing like what it used to be, now its reserved for the intense rivalies which is how it should be.
