Wickenheiser at head of class as hockey Hall names inductees
Zubov, Carbonneau and Nedomansky join women’s hockey great in Class of 2019
Sergei Zubov probably spoke for a couple of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s new inductees on Tuesday when the selection committee rewound further than expected to pick the class of 2019.
“Many different guys, many different players deserved to be here,” said the two-time Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medallist with Russia. “I’m just glad it was my phone number they called.”
The 18-member committee had no obvious candidates this year other than female star Hayley Wickenheiser. Thus, a large group of the most recent eligibles who have waited much of this decade were considered due, including the likes of Alex Mogilny, Curtis Joseph, Theo Fleury and Jeremy Roenick.
But some earlier cold cases were reopened instead with Zubov and Guy Carbonneau joined in the hall by one of hockey’s earliest East Bloc defectors in Vaclav Nedomansky. Together with Wickenheiser and builders wing nominees Jim Rutherford and Jerry York, the hall parking lot changes a little, but remains full.
That’s not to take anything away from Zubov, a top offensive defenceman on both sides of the Atlantic, three-time Selke Trophy winner Carbonneau, or the bravery of “Big Ned.”
Carbonneau and Zubov were teammates on the 1999 champion Dallas Stars, while Carbonneau was the last captain of a Canadian team to lift the Stanley Cup in ’93 with the Canadiens.
“There were times I thought, in the last 19 years, maybe I would have a chance,” said Carbonneau. “Now we can turn that page. My career was a good one, I won championships, played with good players.”
He said his brand of two-way hockey will never go out of style.
“It was the same thing in the ’60s and the ’70s and where hockey is today. If you have players who do one just thing on the ice, it’s tougher to build a winning team. You need some of the players to evolve.
“People thought when I became a defensive player that I sacrificed a lot of offence. I see it the other way. It gave me a chance to put numbers on the board. I look at guys such as Patrice Bergeron, who is the next Bob Gainey. He was not only able to win faceoffs and play well defensively, he put points up.”
Nedomansky was a 33-year-old rookie when he made his escape from the communist watchdogs in the former Czechoslovakia. He began with the World Hockey Association’s Toronto Toros, having to adjust to small ice and culture shock, but would become a 50-goal scorer and later play in the NHL with the Red Wings.
Though he never regretted defecting, it was “difficult,” but he gradually adopted the underdog mentality the rest of the Toros had in their rivalry with the Maple Leafs. Leafs owner Harold Ballard put the screws to the Toros when they were forced to play at Maple Leaf Gardens.
“We were a second-class team, we had to skate after the Leafs,” Nedomansky said.
Wickenheiser had 119 points in Olympic and world championship play and a total of 379 points in 276 games. She won four Olympic gold medals for Canada and briefly played in a men’s league in Finland. She broke ground as current assistant director of player development for the Leafs.
The 40-year-old was writing a medical exam in Western Canada and unable to join Tuesday’s conference call, but the 73-yearold York marvelled at how far women’s hockey has come on and off the ice.
“We have two former Olympians coaching at Boston College and we talk all the time about changes in hockey, different drills and systems,” York said. “Hayley was the one to really start it. It’s been great fun for us to watch. It has come leaps and bounds.”
York, the winningest active coach in NCAA hockey with 600 at Boston College alone, has five Division 1 championships at the school and Bowling Green. He didn’t want to list all his famous NHL grads for fear of offending anyone, but put Dave Taylor, George McPhee, Rob Blake, Brian Gionta and Brooks Orpik, who retired Tuesday after more than 1,000 NHL games, among them, insisting “players make you a good coach.”
Rutherford, a former NHL goalie, said a decision to leave the league upon retirement and join owner Peter Karmanos in minor hockey with the Compuware program in the Detroit area in the ’80s changed his life. He came back through the junior Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires before running the Hartford Whalers when Karmanos got into the NHL and moved the team to Carolina, where it won the 2006 Cup. Two other titles have followed for Rutherford in recent years with Pittsburgh.
The native of Beeton, Ont., near Toronto, often visited the hall’s old site on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds and now he’s in the shrine, joining Karmanos in the builders wing.
“You never forget your first Cup,” Rutherford said of winning with the underdog Canes in ’06, one of the first Sun Belt teams to do it and help the league grow in the U.S.
“In Pittsburgh, you have an advantage starting with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. I’ve been in the right place, right time.”
The 18 committee members met Tuesday. A 75 per cent vote was required for any name they put forward for induction. The ceremony is Nov. 18 in Toronto.