O’ree, Brodeur, Bettman lead Hall parade
Hockey honors for trio with different journeys in NHL
Willie O’ree didn’t know he had broken the NHL’S color barrier when he made his debut in 1958. Martin Brodeur couldn’t see the three Stanley Cup titles and jaw-dropping career ahead when he played his first game in goal for the New Jersey Devils in 1992 and, a year later, Gary Bettman didn’t know he would end up growing the league by leaps and bounds over the next 25 years as its commissioner.
All three will enter the Hockey Hall of Fame, headliners of a trailblazing class of 2018 that also includes forward Martin St. Louis, four-time gold-medal-winning Canadian women’s national team member Jayna Hefford and Russian Alexander Yakushev.
O’ree was the league’s first black player. Bettman has guided the NHL’S expansion into a multibillion-dollar industry. Brodeur recorded the most wins and shutouts in NHL history.
“This is an exciting class to be around because everyone has tried to take their game to the next level,” Bettman said Tuesday.
Bettman has been commissioner since 1993, during which time the NHL has expanded its footprint across North America and increased from 24 to 31 teams. In that time, the league has gone from a $437 million business to one with almost $5 billion in revenue.
Brodeur lifted the Stanley
Cup three times with the Devils between 1995 and 2003. He leads all goalies with 691 wins and 125 shutouts in 1,266 regular-season games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues, and he won the Vezina Trophy four times.
“You play your whole career and you don’t expect to get this phone call, but when it does, it definitely does feel pretty good,” said Brodeur.
While Brodeur and St. Louis were first-ballot selections, O’ree had been waiting decades for this honor since making history at the Montreal Forum on Jan. 18, 1958, with the Boston Bruins. He was 32.
A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, O’ree finished with four goals and 10 assists in 45 NHL games during the 1957-58 and 1960-61 seasons despite being 95 percent blind in his right eye. O’ree will be the third black player inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr and Canadian women’s national team captain Angela James.
“Willie paved the path for the rest of us,” Fuhr said.
“I knew that there were going to be more black players not only playing pro but eventually getting into the National Hockey League,” O’ree, 82, said. “Now there’s 31 teams in the league and you can see that the black players and the players of color that are playing there, they’re there because they have the skills and the ability to be in the league.”
St. Louis was a 5-foot-8 winger who put up 1,033 points in 1,134 regular-season games over 17 seasons, winning the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and an Olympic gold medal with Canada in 2014.
Hefford won four Olympic golds and seven world championships. She said the honor was more emotional than some of her medals because she could share it with so many family members, friends and teammates.
Yakushev became known to North American hockey fans during the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, with 11 points in eight games. He also won Olympic gold in 1972 and 1976.