Rutherford not part of Hall class
has tried to take their game to the next level,” Bettman said Tuesday. “I really wasn’t focused on whether this was happening now; I was really focused on whether Willie O’Ree was going to be selected because that to me was a very important act for the Hall to take.”
Bettman has been commissioner since 1993, during which time the NHL has expanded its footprint across North America and increased from 24 to 31 teams. In that time, the league has gone from a $437 million business to one with almost $5 billion in revenue. It has been an occasionally bruising ride, with three work stoppages, including one that canceled the entire 2004-05 season and led to the salary cap. But Bettman has been nothing if not a strong leader, and all-time great Wayne Gretzky said the efforts to help each club compete have made the gamestronger.
“His leadership and love for hockey is very evident,” Gretzky said. “Hockey has become more entertaining year after year, thanks in part to hispassion for the game.”
Brodeur lifted the Stanley Cup three times with the Devils between 1995 and 2003. He leads all goalies with 691 wins and 125 shutouts in 1,266 regular-season games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues, and he won the Vezina Trophy four times. He won 113 playoff games and had a 2.02 postseason goals-against average. Brodeur also scored two regular-season goals and another in the playoffs — more than any other goalie.
The Montreal native was the last real stand-up goaltender as the position moved almost exclusively to the butterfly technique, and his puck-handling prowess led the NHL to institute the trapezoid behind the net as a way to increase scoring.
“You play your whole career and you don’t expect to get this phone call, but, when it does, it definitely does feel pretty good,” said Brodeur, the Blues assistant GM who was sitting alongside Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson at prospect camp in St. Louis when he got the news. “I want to thank the committee for putting me on so early.”
While Brodeur and St. Louis were first-ballot selections, O’Ree, 82, had been waiting decades for this honor since making history at the Montreal Forum Jan. 18, 1958, with the Boston Bruins. He was 32.
A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, in Eastern Canada, O’Ree finished with four goals and 10 assists in 45 NHL games in the 1957-58 and 1960-61 seasons despite being 95 percent blind in his right eye. O’Ree was the first black player in the NHL but he will be the third inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr and Canadian women’s national team captain Angela James.
“Willie paved the path for the rest of us,” Fuhr said. “In that way, he is a true builder of the game. If you look up the word ‘builder,’ there should be a picture of Willie. He is the Jackie Robinson of hockey.”