IGINLA HEADLINES THE CLASS OF 202O
Flames star among five players, one builder to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame
The Big Tree is going under hockey’s big tent.
Though the media couldn’t see Jarome Iginla’s winning smile during Wednesday’s conference call, it’s sure to light up the Hall of Fame on induction night as the former Calgary Flames captain headlined a 2020 class of five players and one builder.
Fellow first-year eligible Marian Hossa was also named, along with two defencemen who have waited 20 or more years for the Hall call in Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson.
Three-time Canadian women’s Olympic team goalie Kim St. Pierre was also selected, with longtime Detroit general manager and current Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland in as the lone man to gain entry in the builder’s wing.
But it’s at least another year on the outside for two well-known players on Canadian NHL teams who were thought to be on the short list.
Ottawa Senators captain
Daniel Alfredsson and one-time Vancouver Canuck and Toronto Maple Leaf Alex Mogilny were passed over again.
Iginla, in his first year of eligibility, needed at least 14 of 18 votes from the selection committee, only four of whom were in the Hall’s boardroom in Toronto. The rest hooked into the first long-distance vote held due to COVID-19 concerns.
Iginla’s 21 NHL seasons, 16 of them spent with the Flames, came after he was traded to Calgary by the Dallas Stars, for Joe Nieuwendyk. Iginla’s election as the Hall’s fourth Black player is a significant event.
“I didn’t view myself as a Black player, though I was aware of it,” Iginla said of growing up near Edmonton. “I had a lot of wonderful experiences (in hockey) but I was asked a lot, ‘Hey, there aren’t many black players in the NHL?’ I wanted to be like Mark Messier and I loved Wayne
Gretzky, but seeing Grant Fuhr and to say to other people, ‘he’s an all-star,’ and to see Tony Mckegney and Claude Vilgrain, it was very important to me.”
Iginla, whose name means
Big Tree in his Nigerian father’s native language, thanked his hockey loving grandfather Rick for helping him after getting a later start to the game than many kids after his parents split up.
Iginla considered taking up goaltending like Fuhr and treasured a picture of the two of them taken at a charity baseball game.
“If there are other kids, minorities or Blacks growing up who see it’s possible, maybe (getting a Hall spot) will be special to them the way it was for me,” Iginla said.
Lowe and Wilson, like many others, had been on the Hall’s lengthy waiting list so long that they stopped fretting whenever the June voting date came up — only to be surprised to see chairman Lanny Mcdonald’s number on their phone. Most of Wilson’s family, including his grandchildren, were at a pool party at the San Jose general manager’s house, and his wife broke down when she answered.
Wilson took time to reflect on a career in Chicago that went back to the late Stan Mikita being his first roommate and friendships with the late Keith Magnusson as well as Bobby Orr in his brief stint with the Hawks.
Lowe has often been considered a huge missing piece of the Oilers’ Stanley Cup dynasty in the Hall that already features Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, Jari Kurri, Glenn Andersen, Paul Coffey and Glen Sather.
“I’ve never seen myself as a
Hall of Famer: that was Gretzky and Gordie Howe,” Lowe said. “I understood you have to put up more points, win more (individual) awards. My dream was to win Cups. But when I saw Lanny’s number today, I thought surely he’s not phoning just to say I didn’t get in. This hasn’t quite sunk in.”
Holland joined Lou Lamoriello as longtime GMS who are in the Hall as active executives. Holland won three Cups with the Red Wings before last year’s move to Edmonton.