Admission to the Hockey Hall of Fame

Jim Mathieson of the Edmonton Journal is already looking ahead to June 28th, 2007 when the Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Committee meets to induct the class of 2007.

The Hockey Hall of Fame committee is going to have their hands full this year when they vote after the draft because they can only let four skaters in and there's five, for sure, that should get in. Mark Messier is a lock. Ron Francis is close. Al MacInnis (Norris trophy, Stanley Cup ring), Scott Stevens (Conn Smythe trophy) and Igor Larionov (Russian trailblazer) are also on the ballot. So is Claude Lemieux, who won Cups with three different teams and had 19 game-winning playoff goals, second only to Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull. Glenn Anderson? He's got a fairly good chance, actually, with a rejigged voting group (Peter Stastny, Michael Farber are new guys) to get in in 2008.

Here is a complete list of first year eligible players. Previous considerations also include Dino Ciccarelli, Pavel Bure, Doug Gilmour, Dale Hunter, Phil Housley, Kevin Lowe, Mike Richter, Ralph Backstrom, Claude Provost, and international stars Sergei Makarov, Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov and Alexander Maltsev.