Fighting has been a hot-button topic in Vancouver this week. First, Canucks rookie defencemen Zeev Buium, Elias Pettersson, and Tom Willander “practiced” their fighting after a practice this week. And then on Thursday night, Buium actually dropped his gloves in a game, going toe-to-toe with LA Kings defenceman Brandt Clarke.

According to NHL.com, there are a total of 29 defencemen classified as rookies who have played at least 10 games this season. A random thought I had that maybe — look, I said maybe — you might find interesting. How many of those players have done what Buium did and shed their gloves at some point this season?

To find the answer to this question, I enlisted the help of my colleague Dan Gallant — AKA, the head honcho over at hockeyfights.com. For those who don’t know, Hockey Fights is a phenomenal database for fights from multiple leagues. You can find fight information for individual players, teams, and much more. Using it, we were able to put together a quick list of other NHL rookie DMen who have dropped the mitts. Enjoy!

Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Alexander Nikishin won this scrap against Oliver Moore pretty decisively, with 93% of Hockey Fights voters scoring this one as a win for him.

25-year-old Adam Wilsby threw a big hit on Tyler Pitlick, and as the broadcast picked up, Hinostroza skated over to him and asked the classic question: “You want one?”

It’s nice the broadcast picked that up, because they were a bit late getting to the fight itself, even on replay.

Logan Mailloux has fought twice this season, and both times, he’s eaten some pretty big right hands. According to Hockey Fights voters, he’s lost both of his fights, with 23 of 23 voters saying Zack Ostapchuk won their fight from March 26th (this past Thursday night).

Tampa Bay’s Declan Carlile might want to consider picking a weaker opponent at some point, because so far, he’s fought Jonah Gadjovich and Garnet Hathaway — two of the NHL’s toughest customers. The fight against Gadjovich came in that heated Tampa vs. Florida preseason game, and his fight against Hathaway came in January.

Carlile has also dropped the gloves in the AHL this season.

No, you’re not misreading that. Florida Panthers defenceman Donovan Sebrango has fought five times. If you want to check out his whole profile, click here. He’s mainly been a healthy scratch for the Panthers, but he’s served as a bit of a hired gun for them, appearing in 29 games. Here’s my personal pick for the best fight of his career:

The only reason these are honourable mentions is because they didn’t take place in the NHL, as both of these players participated in one AHL scrap each. Check out their fight pages here!

So in total, six of the 29 rookie defencemen in the NHL have fought in the NHL this year, and that number includes Buium. Could Tom Willander join him on that list? There are 11 games left to find out.