Alfredsson, Mogilny due for call to hockey hall
Both have been overlooked before; Wickenheiser a lock
It’s a hindsight year for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
After a decade that required little debate for headliner inductions — names such as Yzerman, Gilmour, Chelios, Lidstrom, Selanne, Brodeur and Shanahan — the 2019 class has no clear favourite among male players.
When the 18 selection committee members gather in Toronto on Tuesday to vote, they’ll dust off some old claims. Up to four men and two women can be added, with two in the builders’ wing if no one is chosen in the referee/ linesman category.
Alex Mogilny and Daniel Alfredsson are among the most prominent names in the hall’s crowded waiting room. The patient Mogilny has been eligible since 2009 and watched two years ago as Paul Kariya, with fewer points and no Stanley Cup, made it in ahead of him. Mogilny’s attendance at the November ceremony might be worth it just for his speech, with the Russian renowned for his dry wit.
Alfredsson has even more points, 1,157 to Mogilny’s 1,032. Had there not been bigger stars at the head of the line after their three-year wait, Alfredsson would have made a strong case in his first two years of eligibility.
He has Olympic gold with Sweden, which carries as much weight as the Cup for international members on the hall committee.
If goals and assists were the sole criteria, Pierre Turgeon would have been in long ago, with the most points of any eligible player on the outside. But his 1,400-plus points, including playoffs, don’t include national team titles or a major NHL award. Jeremy Roenick, nine years in the wings, is a comparable at 1,216 points. Defenceman Sergei Zubov is on the fringe.
Martin Brodeur’s automatic induction last year cleared the goalie category for Curtis Joseph, whose 454 wins are more than six hall of famers. However, the Cup and Vezina Trophy eluded him.
First-year eligibles are Patrik Elias and Vincent Lecavalier, but they join the tight pack rather than lead it.
Ironically, nine years after Angela James and Cammi Granato became the first women elected, the only 2019 certainty is Hayley Wickenheiser. Canada’s four-time Olympic champion has a slew of IIHF medals and 377 points in 276 games.
The hall no longer has a veterans’ category, but it certainly doesn’t lack for such candidates. Lobbying for old-time Nhlers goes back to those who won multiple Cups for the Original Six dynasty clubs, though Rogatien Vachon was one of the few hall additions in recent years.
There are also long-standing movements to have Team Canada ’72 hero Paul Henderson chosen (he’s in the IIHF’S Hall of Fame) as well as Don Cherry as a builder.