Turgeon belongs in Hockey Hall of Fame
Two legendary French-canadian NHL forwards sat on a locker-room bench at South Suburban Ice Arena last week, preparing to play the game they love.
On this day, and every day when they skate with a cast of local amateurs, Michel Goulet and Pierre Turgeon have no peers.
A head-scratching Hockey Hall of Fame omission for Turgeon is about all that separates them.
Goulet, the former Quebec Nordiques star who was the Avalanche’s director of player personnel when they won the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001, was a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee at age 38 in 1998 — four years after completing a 15-year NHL career with Chicago. The 59-year-old stands 30th all-time in NHL goals (548) and 55th in points (1,153).
Turgeon, who completed a 19-year NHL career with the Avalanche in 2007, has more career points than Goulet but is still waiting for his Hall call at the age of 49. His 1,327 points (515 goals) are 32nd all-time and the most of any eligible player not inducted into the Hall. (Jaromir Jagr and Joe Thornton stand second and 14th, respectively, but neither is yet eligible.).
“Pierre was the best player on his team for 12 to 14 straight years,” Goulet said. “That’s elite.”
The No. 1 overall selection by the Buffalo Sabres in 1987 draft, Turgeon certainly lived up to his draft status. He scored 30 goals in a season nine times, 40 twice and had a career-high 58 in 199293, when he finished fifth in NHL scoring (132 points) behind Hall of Famers Mario Lemieux (160), Pat Lafontaine (148), Adam
Oates (142) and Steve Yzerman (137).
Turgeon also won the Lady Bing Trophy — awarded to a player who exhibits great sportsmanship and ability — in 1993 and had the reputation as a highcharacter player during his 19 years in the league.
So why isn’t he in the Hall? Turgeon opts not to engage in that discussion, instead focusing on what he accomplished.
“I was grateful to do something I love for many years. That’s the main thing. There’s not a lot of people can say that. I’m so blessed for this,” Turgeon said. “I love being on the ice. … I feel like a kid. I don’t feel like a kid the next day, but I feel like a kid again. It’s crazy. I love hockey.
“And don’t look around and start to compare me to people who are in (the HHOF) or not. I’m happy for them. Everyone that goes in, that’s awesome. But should I be a part of it? I’d love to, and I think I should be when I look at the stats. Sure, I didn’t win the Stanley Cup — that’s probably one thing that comes up right away. I never won the Stanley Cup. But the numbers are there and I’d love to be a part with a guy like this (pointing to Goulet). It’s an incredible list of players.”
Goulet didn’t win the Stanley Cup as a player, either. The closest he came was when the Nordiques lost to Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals (six games) in 1985. Turgeon got as far as the Western Conference finals in 2001 with St. Louis before losing to the Avalanche in five games.
“A lot of awful good players didn’t win the Cup. What can you do?” Goulet said. “The Cup, to me, is not a big part of being a Hall of Famer — not because I didn’t win the Cup, but in my brain, if you’re a great player for 10 to 15 years, holy cow.”
Goulet and Turgeon each averaged more than a point per game in their careers.
While Turgeon isn’t the only NHL forward to average more than a point per game over 1,000plus games and not make the HHOF, he’s in a pretty exclusive group that also includes Theo Fleury (1088 points in 1,084 games) and Bernie Nicholls (1,209 in 1,127).
“It’s out of your control,” Goulet said, referring to the 18-member HHOF selection committee. “That’s why it’s hard to talk about it — the only thing you can control is what you did for 18 years (playing). The rest? It happens every year. ‘What about this guy? What about that guy?’ Sometimes it’s just timing. But at the end of the day, one day (Turgeon) will be there.”
Goulet attends the HHOF induction weekend in Toronto nearly every November. Turgeon has been invited to the weekend multiple times, but only to play in the celebrity game the day before the induction ceremony.
Last November, he played when 2004 Stanley Cup winner Martin St. Louis was inducted — yet another scoring forward has beat by the numbers. St. Louis (1,033 points in 1,134 games) never reached 400 goals and trails Turgeon (548 goals) in games played and career points.
Not that Turgeon will spend much time complaining about it.
“I go play against all these guys,” Turgeon said of the Hall of Famers who participate in the celebrity game. “I show up and it’s fun.”
“I love it,” Goulet said of the annual event. “It’s an awesome night for hockey, to see the excitement from the players and their families.”
Turgeon deserves to feel that.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@ denverpost.com or @mikechambers