TORONTO -- There are no automatics like Chris Pronger or Nicklas Lidstrom among the first-year eligible players next year, so 2016 is going to be a very interesting vote indeed for the selection committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Unless you feel Alexei Kovalev deserves first-year inclusion -- and I don’t think most people would -- then it’s a wide-open year, when players who have been passed over during the past several years will get their best shot yet at finally getting the June call.
Those include the likes of Eric Lindros, Dave Andreychuk, Sergei Zubov, Mark Recchi, Doug Wilson, Kevin Lowe, Pierre Turgeon, Jeremy Roenick, Theo Fleury, Alex Mogilny,Paul Kariya, Sergei Makarov, Pat Verbeek, Alexander Yakushev and Steve Larmer.
Reached Monday night over the phone, Lindros was diplomatic, saying he can't lose sleep over it.
"It is what it is," Lindros said. "If I ever get the call, I would be very honored, no question. But if I don't, it's how it goes."
Lindros has been eligible since 2010 and certainly there is no more polarizing HHOF candidate. I'm in the camp that says he deserves to get in because although his career was limited by injuries, he was for a time one of the very top players in the world and won a Hart Trophy as MVP.
"I think if you’ve won an MVP in the league, there has to be pretty strong consideration for going into the Hall of Fame," said Hall of Famer Bob Clarke, who was GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, of course, when Lindros was at his peak.
"There is no obvious requirement that gets you in there, but Lindros was a pretty dominant player for six or seven years in the league," added Clarke, also a member of the Hall’s selection committee. "I do favor the idea that if you win some major NHL trophies, you should be strongly considered."
Perhaps the better argument is that Cam Neely (694 career points) and Pavel Bure (779 career points) are in the Hall despite their injury-limited careers -- and I believe both of them deserve to be in -- and Lindros (865 career points) still isn’t despite a similar injury-limited career.
Lindros has been nominated two or three times in the past five years but obviously didn’t get the needed votes when the selection committee debated him.
We’ll see what happens in June.
Andreychuk’s 640 career goals has to get him in at some point, no? Zubov is just so overlooked, the guy had a crazy career. He’s a Hall of Famer in my books. Wilson won a Norris Trophy and was a standout for so many years with the Chicago Blackhawks, I’m still amazed he’s been passed over all these years.
Yakushev was one of the very greats of that Soviet team in the 1970s; he deserves the nod. As I like to say, it’s the Hockey Hall of Fame, not the NHL Hall of Fame.
It’s important for some of these guys to get in next year because in 2017 you’ve got Teemu Selanne and Daniel Alfredsson among the first-year eligibles, and in 2018 Martin Brodeur and Sergei Gonchar will be in the first-year eligible category.
A nominated player needs 14 of 18 votes from the selection committee to gain induction. These are the current members of the selection committee.
