“Five years ago, anytime there was an open-ice hit, there was a fight,” Chicago Blackhawks’ forward Dale Weise said. “That’s just the way it was. Now, you see open ice hits and nothing happens.”

Fighting is down in the NHL. According to hockeyfights.com, there have been 309 fights across the NHL this season. That’s only 0.28 per game, the lowest average over the last 15 seasons. There is simply no longer a need for a towering enforcer that grinds out a couple minutes a game looking for a scrap.

“Teams need four lines to compete,” Tom Wilson of the Capitals said. “You see teams that win the [Stanley] Cup. Every year they have four lines that can play. It’s too crucial a spot to have a forward play three minutes.”

But the age of the heavyweight, fighting forward may not be dead just yet. They can reform, instead becoming penalty-drawing specialists, and some may have already chosen to do so. The benefit of drawing a penalty is simple: Your team often gets a power play. If we look at the top players in terms of penalties drawn this season, you can quite clearly see a trend. A large chunk of those guys are fourth-liners who know how to get under opponents’ skin.

One of those top names on the above list, Bobby Farnham, used to be the very definition of a fighter. The New Jersey Devil recorded 44 fights over the last three seasons in the AHL. This year, Farnham earned himself a full-time spot in the NHL, and he’s completely shied away from the playing style he once embraced. He has just four fights this year. Farnham has managed to draw 15 penalties this season. And considering he’s only on the ice for a little more than 9 minutes a game, he’s averaging 2.34 drawn penalties for every 60 minutes he plays.

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“You realize, especially when you get to this level, that you are probably more effective as a player drawing penalties than a player trying to fight all of the time,” Farnham said. “That’s how you are valuable to your team.

Tom Wilson is another example. Wilson (14 fights last year versus 7 this year) has drawn 25 penalties in 72 games for Washington, which converts on 23.2 percent of its power play opportunities, the best rate in the NHL. If we use that same percentage on Wilson’s drawn penalties, the Capitals are scoring six or seven goals this season directly from Wilson’s drawn penalties, assuming Wilson’s drawn penalties come at even strength. While that may not seem like a significant amount at first, when you consider the amount of one-goal games the NHL’s top team has been through this season, those six or seven goals could mean the difference between six or seven wins or losses.

These penalty-drawing specialists are never going to be hot commodities. However, these pests do have value in today’s NHL, and they have already found their way into games. If players can find that harmony between playing with an edge and playing with a head on their shoulders, more and more of those prototypical fighters will find a way to earn a paycheck while fights continue to dwindle.

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“Obviously there are still guys who are extremely tough, but I think the agitator-type role is going to come a lot more in this new age,” Farnham said. “The guys who can skate, the guys who can draw penalties, the guys who can play on your fourth line and do that kind of stuff. It’s going to be the age of the ‘rat’ almost. I don’t like to use the word ‘rat,’ but people are going to try to make a living in this league.”

The age of the heavyweight fighter is dead. Now comes the age of the rats.