Canucks' Ben Hutton Brings Back Hockey's Oldest Tradition—The Mullet

When it comes to gambling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you end up with a dope mullet—which is definitely a victory.

Last week, Vancouver Canucks defenceman Ben Hutton sat beside fellow blueliner and partner Erik Gudbranson in the visitors' dressing room in Tampa Bay. Fresh off of a tough 3-2 loss to the Devils a couple nights before and looking to spark his struggling mates, he proclaimed (jokingly) that if Gudbranson scored the game-winning goal that night, he'd let his defence partner choose his next hairstyle.

Seeing as Gudbranson only had 11 career goals in over 330 NHL games, and was yet to score at all since being traded to Vancouver this past offseason, Hutton thought he was in pretty good shape. Of course, Gudbranson stepped up and scored his first as a Canuck that night, and his blast was the second goal of the game in a 5-1 Canucks win, holding up as the winner.

With that, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2010 draft won the bet and had a crucial decision to make. He toiled over other possibilities—a rat tail, among others, were his top initial choices—but an old photo of current Canucks assistant coach and former defenceman Doug Lidster inspired him to go a more classic route for Hutton's new doo.

The mullet has been the favourite choice of hockey hair aficionados since the 80s, and every so often, the old Kentucky neck blanket makes a triumphant return to the sport that made a legitimate and respectable haircut out of one deemed far too ridiculous and appalling for the mainstream.

Blackhawks superstar Patrick Kane has been rocking the mullet during Chicago's playoff runs since 2009-10, when his inability to grow facial hair in his early NHL career led him to try something different for the postseason.

The result? Kane scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime of Game 6 to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers and start a run of three Cup victories in six years for the Hawks. Early and unconfirmed analytics suggest that the mullet is 90 to 95 percent responsible for all that individual and team success.

When we think of classic mullets, one person immediately comes to mind and that's ageless wonder Jaromir Jagr. The on-ice accomplishments of Jagr are only surpassed in hockey folklore by one thing—his classic flow. He burst onto the scene during his rookie season in 1990-91 and brought with him the hairstyle that came and went, but was always synonymous with Jagr.

The Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in his first two seasons, and since then, the fifth overall pick in the 1990 draft (yes, 26 years ago) has played over 1,600 games and sits less than 20 points back of Mark Messier for second all-time (behind, of course, Wayne Gretzky, who rocked a pretty great one back in his day, too). The key to Jagr's longevity and unheard of success over nearly a quarter century in the league? Conditioning, work ethic and diet are all important factors, but sports science would suggest that his mullet should be getting most of the credit.

There has been a bunch more variations of this salad over the years in the NHL, and here are some of the best.

The classic mullet has been much maligned across most segments of society since the early 80s. In the great game of hockey, however, the haircut will always have a home. Shoutout to Mike Ricci and others for their great work throughout the years, too.

All screengrabs via Google Images