Canuck standouts fuel Hall of Fame hopes
TOP CONTENDERS: Mogilny, Luongo among Vancouver alums with clear shot at hockey’s greatest honour
After Monday’s announcement, Igor Larionov, Pavel Bure and Pat Quinn remain the only Canucks in the Hockey Hall of Fame. (OK, Mark Messier too, but, well, you know.)
Larionov went in 2008. After starring for the Soviet national team and for Central Red Army in the Soviet league, he began his NHL career in Vancouver. As an NHLer, though, he is mostly remembered for his play in Detroit, where he was part of three Stanley Cup winning teams.
Bure was the first player truly remembered as a former Canuck to be enshrined when he went in 2012, along with Adam Oates, Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin.
Pat Quinn was inducted last year, two years after he died, as a builder.
The current list of Canucks “possibles” is pretty distinguished: Alex Mogilny, for one, has been batted about for several seasons now as a possible future Hall of Famer.
The enigmatic Russian played nearly five seasons for the Canucks from 1995 to 2000. He also played for the Sabres, the Devils and the Maple Leafs, scoring 473 goals along the way; that’s more than 2017 inductee Paul Kariya.
Mogilny first rose to fame on the Soviet junior team, playing on a line with Bure and another hall of famer in Sergei Fedorov, who was inducted into the hall in 2015.
Markus Naslund is another who springs to mind, as his solid production in the later years of the Dead Puck era is worth noting.
At first sniff, you might go “nah,” but consider that over his time with the Canucks, 1996 t0 2008, only nine other players scored more points: Jagr, Sakic, Sundin, Selanne, Alfredsson, Kariya, Modano, Iginla, Thornton. Mark Recchi is 11th on that list, with Brendan Shanahan and Peter Forsberg behind him. Only six players scored more goals: Jagr, Selanne, Iginla, Sundin, Shanahan and Tkachuk.
Roberto Luongo will have a strong case when he retires. He’ll have played more than 1,000 games by then. Only two goalies will have done that: Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy. Luongo’s career save percentage will be well above both Roy’s and Brodeur, but unlike either of them he hasn’t won a Stanley Cup. Different eras of play, sure, but Luongo’s numbers are clearly elite. Only five goalies have career save percentages better than his: Tuukka Rask, Dominik Hasek, Carey Price, Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist.
And then there are the Sedins.
Both have won the Art Ross and Henrik has won the Hart. Since making their debut in 2000-01, Henrik sits sixth in points, Daniel is 8th. The top five in that time are Thornton, Iginla, Hossa, Ovechkin and Crosby. Those guys are all hall of famers. With Hossa possibly retiring, Henrik and maybe Daniel look likely to finish ahead of the great Slovak in career points.
Could all five get in? It seems wild to think so. None are a slam dunk but all have strong cases. And whether any get in or not, the strength of the five cases speaks well of the last 20 years of Canucks hockey, even if the playoff glory continues to elude.