It was worth the wait for Wilson and Lowe
TORONTO — Doug Wilson was in the pool playing with his grandkids when the phone rang. Lanny McDonald was on the other end of the line.
Wilson passed it to his wife, Kathy, so she would be the first to hear the news nearly a quarter century in the making — her husband is going into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“That was fabulous,” McDonald, the hall’s chair, recalled a few hours after the conversation. “In five years of being able to play Santa Claus and make these calls to our newest inductees, this is the first year that I had been asked if I would tell either a wife or significant other.
“To be able to share that with Kathy on the phone and have her break down a little bit and cry, you know how much it means.”
Wilson, who played 16 seasons in the
NHL and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenceman in
1982, waited 24 years to get that call
Wednesday afternoon.
“It was an unexpected call, as you can tell by my wife’s response,” he said. “It was a pleasant shock.”
Kevin Lowe, a steady blue liner during the Edmonton Oilers’ dynasty of the 1980s, was also voted in by the 18-member committee some 19 years after first becoming eligible.
The pair didn’t have to wait as long as some — Rogie Vachon’s phone didn’t ring for more than three decades on decision day until he finally got the good news back in 2016 — but had to bide their time compared to fellow class members Jarome Iginla and Marian Hossa, who were elected in their first years of eligibility.
Canadian women’s national team goalie Kim St-Pierre rounds out the 2020 player category, while former Detroit Red Wings general manager and current Oilers GM Ken Holland will go in as a builder. The annual hall ceremony is scheduled for November, but could be delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve never seen myself as a Hall of Famer,” Lowe said. “For me, the Hall of Fame was Bobby Orr, Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier. And, although I know there are players of my ilk in the Hall of Fame and it’s a place for everyone, I don’t want to say I was disappointed in the years that I didn’t get selected.
Wilson registered 827 points in 1,024 career NHL regularseason games, putting up 39 goals in his Norris campaign for the fourth-most in a season behind Paul Coffey (48 and 40) and Orr (40).
The Ottawa native, who turns 63 next month, had nine seasons of at least 50 points, and was an original member of the San Jose Sharks. Wilson then joined the club’s front office and has served as GM since 2003 — currently the second-longest tenure in the NHL.
“I’ve always looked at the Hall of Fame in awe,” said the eighttime all-star. “The Wayne Gretzkys, the Bobby Orrs, the Stan Mikitas, the people of that level.”
So what’s their advice to the likes of Alexander Mogilny, Daniel Alfredsson, Curtis Joseph, Rod Brind’Amour, Jennifer Botterill and so many others whose phones have yet to ring?
“Just hang in there,” Lowe said. “It’s all worth the wait.”