New Jersey Devils: Sean Avery Deserves Role As Most Hated

Sean Avery was the biggest heel in New Jersey Devils history and he is well-deserving of being voted to such a title by the readers.

The New Jersey Devils have had many respectable foes over the history of the franchise. There has been some rather unnecessary hate for players like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin, but let’s face it, it’s because they are elite players playing for rival franchises. There are plenty of other goons out there that deserve to be known as “hated rivals” way more.

Nobody deserves the title of most hated more than Sean Avery. Pucks and Pitchforks ran an online poll via Twitter in a tournament-style format that led to Sean Avery being named the most hated opponent in the history of the team. He was one of those players that by the end of his career, you just hated his presence whenever New Jersey was playing his team.

He acted like he was a superstar, but he was a glorified depth player. He had 90 goals and 157 assists for 247 points in 580 games played. He played parts of seasons with the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, and Dallas Stars. He was an annoying player everywhere he went but the straw that made him the most hated Devils’ rival was an incident made involving Martin Brodeur.

Avery stood in the blue paint and waved his stick in Martin Brodeur’s face while the Rangers were attacking in their attacking zone. It was a strategy that Avery thought would work to screen Brodeur and distract him from the play going on. It really didn’t work out too well for him and the NHL made doing that illegal as a result. Avery’s punk ways definitely annoyed Brodeur to the point where he wouldn’t shake his hand in a playoff handshake line.

Avery is a class-A jerk and has been throughout his entire NHL career. He went through the league as an overrated goon and nobody on New Jersey’s side liked him. Now, Avery spends his days making videos of himself yelling at innocent people who park their cars in bike lanes or ride their bikes on the sidewalks of New York City. Some people find this guy to be funny but he is the biggest rival in the history of the New Jersey Devils for a reason.