THE PUCK STOPS HERE
Insiders weigh Hall of Fame credentials of five goaltenders waiting for enshrinement
The great goaltender logjam continues to challenge voters for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
How do you select Tom Barrasso over Mike Vernon? Mike Richter over Curtis Joseph? Chris Osgood over Vernon? Joseph over Barrasso? Richter over Osgood?
Not one of them is a sure thing to enter the hall the way Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek and Ed Belfour were slam-dunk choices. All five candidates are more in the borderline range in a position that is under-represented in the hall. They may get in one day, they may never get in. But all five goaltenders, who played in similar eras but boast a wide range of both statistical and eye test discrepancies, are worthy of consideration.
“I know all five of them very well and I like every one of them. They all made their teams better. They were all workhorses. Three of them played for us,” said Jimmy Devellano, the former general manager of the Detroit Red Wings and an elected member of the hall.
“I could see all five getting in and you really couldn’t argue against them. And I could see none of them getting in, and I don’t know if you could argue against that.”
It’s that close, and so much of the analysis can come down to the city you worked in, the team you followed or played for, or which statistics you value the most.
Osgood, for example, owns three Stanley Cup rings from his days with the Red Wings, the most in this group, although he was the starting goalie on only two of those playoff teams. And historically, the hall has placed significant value on championships won.
Joseph has won the most regular season games in this group at 454, the seventh most in history, just ahead of Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante and Tony Esposito. But he never celebrated a Stanley Cup championship. He also lost the most playoff games.
“When I think of Cujo, I think of a goalie who gave his team a chance to win every night, and he wasn’t on a lot of great teams. What more was he supposed to do?” said Glenn Healy, the longtime NHL goalie who played with or against all the goaltenders listed here. “Cujo never got tired. He’d play 10 games in a row and I’d think, this is my game coming up, and then he’d play again. I didn’t get to play much because he was that good.”
The knock on Joseph: a lack of playoff success. The statistical anomaly: Joseph had 16 playoff shutouts and a .917 playoff save percentage, the highest of this group for both categories.
Healy was one of seven former
NHL players, hockey journalists or current or former executives who was asked by Postmedia to rank the five goaltenders here from No. 1 to No. 5. Not one of the seven lists were the same. Most of them, in fact, were completely different. For reasons of personal relationships, they didn’t want their names attached to their lists.
“To me, there’s one definite Hall of Famer on this list and that’s Barrasso,” said Neil Smith, the only general manager to win a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers over the past 80 years. “He won two Cups. He won the rookie of the year over Steve Yzerman. He was taken so high in the draft and played for Buffalo as a teenager and he was good right away.
“I think sometimes a guy doesn’t get in when he should because people think of him as (a jerk). If you don’t judge him off the ice, and I don’t, he’s in. I watched Glenn Andersen get passed over year after year after winning six Cups because he was a wacky, weird guy. I can’t think of any other reason he didn’t get in.”
Individually, Barrasso is the most decorated of the group, with a Calder Trophy, a Vezina Trophy, a Jennings Trophy. Three times he was voted to the first or second all-star team and he was in goal for two Stanley Cups with Mario Lemieux’s Penguins teams in 1991 and ’92.
“To me, voting for Barrasso was like voting for (Eric) Lindros. I wasn’t a fan because I know him as a person,” said a former NHL goalie. “It’s hard to get away from that.”
Barrasso received more first place votes on this survey than any other goalie.
Vernon was pretty close to the consensus No. 2.
Vernon was in goal for the only Stanley Cup ever won by the Calgary Flames. He should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1989. He won his second Cup in Detroit in 1997 when he did win the Conn Smythe. With two Conn Smythes, he’s probably an easy hall pick.
“If I’m rating the five goalies Nos. 1 to 5, I’d rate Vernon four or five for his ability as a goaltender, but one or two for his ability as a competitor. He was a great competitor,” said a former teammate.
Vernon’s career numbers against Hall of Famers such as Grant Fuhr and Patrick Roy are close to spectacular. His 77 playoff wins top this list, yet his 27 regular season shutouts is rather low, as is his career save percentage, which is under 90 per cent.
Richter has two rather spectacular victories in his high-end career with the Rangers. He was in goal for the only New York Rangers Cup victory in forever. And he followed that up two years later by leading the U.S. to a stunning victory, being named the most valuable player in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
“Mike Richter doesn’t get enough attention,” said Healy. “He was a great, great goalie. He erased three generations of misery and won a Cup in the biggest market in the world with the most pressure. ”
In a way, his career could be compared with Cam Neely or Paul Kariya. They were judged to be Hall of Fame players, not for the games they missed, but for the games they played. In the two major championships of Richter’s career, he was spectacular.
“Barrasso, Vernon and Osgood built their reputations playing on superior teams,” said Vancouver Province columnist Ed Willes. “I’d take Richter at his peak over the other four.”
If statistics were the only factor in determining Hall of Fame induction, Osgood might be the best choice here.
He has the most Stanley Cups, three, one away from the most shutouts with 50, the best winning percentage, the best goals-against average, the best playoff statistics of all. But how much of that was his solid play and how much of that was being with the great Red Wings teams under Scotty Bowman
and Mike Babcock?
Osgood’s story, reinventing himself in mid-career, altering his game from conventional to butterfly, is Hall of Fame stuff. But he never did win an award other than the Jennings, which is basically a team award for allowing the least goals against. He was an all-star once. A Vezina finalist once. And played his entire career in Detroit with Nicklas Lidstrom in front of him.
“I love Ozzie,” said Devellano. “He’s a hell of a guy. But he had a hell of a team in front of him for the most part. We were a powerhouse with Lidstrom, Yzerman, (Sergei) Fedorov, (Pavel) Datsyuk. And with Scotty Bowman coaching.”
My personal list? 1. Barrasso; 2. Richter; 3. Vernon; 4. Joseph. 5. Osgood.
The last borderline goaltender to be elected to the hall was Rogie Vachon, who was inducted 34 years after playing his final NHL game. Eventually the names of Roberto Luongo, Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price will come up.
There are only 38 goalies in the hall. When the NHL played its last season with six teams in 1967, eight goalies who played that year — Vachon, Ed Giacomin, Johnny Bower, Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall, Gerry Cheevers, Gump Worsley and Bernie Parent — went on to be inducted. Since then, the numbers have shrunk dramatically. Of those whose career began 40 years ago, in the decade that began in 1980, only five goalies — Hasek, Roy, Brodeur, Fuhr and Belfour — have been selected.
To get elected, a player requires 14 of 18 votes from the Hall of Fame committee. Normally, with players who aren’t sure things, it also requires someone on the committee taking up the cause for that individual player.
Joseph will need that kind of push from the inside if he’s to be elected.
“Honestly, I think Cujo is way behind the others,” said Smith. “I don’t think he belongs with the other four.”
Devellano disagrees, as does Healy.
Joseph’s reputation for playoff performances may need to be reconsidered. Only Johnny Bower and Turk Broda won more playoff games with the Maple Leafs. His 2.42 playoff goals-against average is better than that of Barrasso, Richter or Vernon. His .917 save percentage is the best of this group, as is his 16 playoff shutouts. And in his two seasons in Detroit, where the Red Wings won four games and lost eight, his GAA was 1.64, his save percentage .931.
“To me,” said Healy, “he’s a Hall of Famer.”
I know all five of them very well and I like every one of them. They all made their teams better. They were all workhorses.