The UFC is coming to Edmonton in the next few days, some Oilers players were sat down to be asked which of their teammates would best succeed as a UFC fighter.
NHL players may be the best athletes out of any major sport to enter the UFC, given that it's the only sport to allow fighting. The Edmonton Oilers don't have too many pure enforcers like other teams around the league, but the players were still confident they could chuck em with the pros.
Stuart Skinner named his goalie buddy Calvin Pickard as the best possible fighter, which had to be a friend pick. Connor Brown and Mattias Ekholm named veteran AHL defender Josh Brown as the best candidate, and with his fighting skills he could be up there. Evan Bouchard picked Leon Draisaitl, who although is a pretty strong guy, has never been known to be a fighter.
The most popular choice for the Oilers teammates was defenceman Darnell Nurse, who was picked four different players as the toughest guy on the team. Corey Perry noted that he had fought Nurse a few times in his career, and was always on the worse off end of it.
Edmonton showed up with the fisticuffs for their game tonight against the Nashville Predators, with both Vasili Podkolzin and Ty Emberson dropping the gloves.
The Oilers aren't the most physical team, but they seem to have a great response to the physicality. So far this season, the Oilers are actually undefeated in games where a teammate gets into a fight. Their responses in this video even show their enthusiasm for fighting, so perhaps it actually becomes a more significant part of their identity.
