Wilson takes his place in Hockey’s Hall
Blackhawks great played final 2 years for Sharks
Doug Wilson thanked the coaches he had as a child and the legends he played with as a pro. He remembered those who influenced his life who have since passed away, and he made special mention of the people he works with daily inside the Sharks organization.
Above all, though, Wilson, in his speech at the Hockey Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony for the Class of 2020 on Monday, thanked his family, particularly his wife, Kathy.
“The heartbeat of our family is my wife Kathy,” Wilson said. “The grandkids are in awe. They look up to you. You’re a role model for all of us. If anybody truly deserves to be a Hall of Famer, I think it’s you. Kath.
“This week and weekend is more about you than anything else.”
Wilson and the other members of the Class of 2020 — Jarome Iginla, Kevin Lowe, Marian Hossa, Kim StPierre and Ken Holland _ each took their turn at Meridian Hall in Toronto to reflect on their respective careers and thank those who helped reach that stage.
Wilson, Iginla, Lowe, Hossa and St-Pierre were inducted into the Player Category, and Holland was inducted in the Builder Category.
Wilson was in his 24th year of eligibility when he was elected on June 24, 2020. The induction ceremony for the class of 2020 was supposed to take place last November but was postponed a year because of the ongoing pandemic.
“The most important thing, I’ll be honest with you, as we go through the last couple of years is health and family,” said Wilson, who did not get overly emotional during his speech.
“(Being) here now able to look over and see my children and my grandkids, my six, (and) a seventh on the
way, I’m extremely proud of all of you kids,” Wilson said. “And to see the grandkids’ big smile on their face and learning about hockey is a wonderful thing.”
Wilson played 1,024 regular-season NHL games from 1977 to 1993, spending the first 14 seasons of his NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks and the final two with the Sharks. He remains one of the NHL’s most offensively
prolific defensemen of all time with 827 career points, 15th-most in league history.
Wilson wanted to play like the legendary Bobby Orr and got to be his teammate for a brief time with the Blackhawks before Orr retired in November 1978.
“It wasn’t long before his freewheeling, high IQ defense-meets-offense style, all driven by pure skating ability, began to draw comparisons to his source of inspiration,” said James Duthie, the host of Monday’s ceremony, of Wilson’s playing career.
“But like all true greats, comparisons eventually waned as game-in, gameout, season after season, his rare flair and dominance of NHL blue lines led to his game becoming known as Doug Wilson’s game, singular and destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame.”
Wilson had over 50 friends and family members in attendance at Meridian Hall, including his children and members of the Sharks’ front office.
Wilson thanked the Blackhawks, the team that selected him sixth overall in the 1977 NHL Draft. But he made special mention of his earliest Blackhawks mentors: Stan Mikita. Keith Magnuson and Tony Esposito, all of whom have passed away.
Mikita, Wilson said, “always had a saying that he would teach me: you make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give.” Wilson said Magnuson was. “one of the finest men I’ve ever met in my life. He was a guy that would do things and teach you that the greatest gift you can give anybody is time.”