Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman share at least two things in common. They won the Stanley Cup together with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, and they are being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame together in 2009.
This tremendous trio join already inducted Igor Larionov and coach Scotty Bowman. It is only a matter of time before teammates Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and probably Brendan Shanahan join them. Pavel Datsyuk, just a youngster on that team, continues to build a career that has him on course for the Hall, too.
That Detroit team could very well have 10 players, or half of the team, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame!
Does this make them the greatest team of all time? I'm not going to go that far, but they certainly had one of the most talented teams ever. But how do they compare in terms of Hall of Fame count?
The 1956 Montreal Canadiens also had 10 Hall of Famers - Rocket Richard, Henri Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bert Olmstead, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Butch Bouchard, and Jacques Plante.
All but Bouchard returned in 1957 and 1958 (9 Hall of Famers). All but Olmstead and Bouchard were present in 1959 and 1960 (8 Hall of Famers).
The famed 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup team also had 10 Hall of Famers - Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Pulford, Red Kelly, George Armstrong, Tim Horton, Allan Stanley, Marcel Pronovost, and goalies Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower.
Going way back, the 1939 Boston Bruins had 10 Hall of Famers - Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart, Bobby Bauer, Bill Cowley, Roy Conacher, Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Cooney Weiland, Tiny Thompson and Frank Brimsek.
The 1977 Montreal Canadiens featured 9 Hall of Famers - Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire, Steve Shutt, Bob Gainey, Yvan Cournoyer, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe.
The 1987 Edmonton Oilers had just six Hall of Famers - Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr.
The 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins currently can claim 6 Hall of Famers - Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Bryan Trottier, Joe Mullen and Larry Murphy. Jaromir Jagr will one day join them, as might Mark Recchi and Tom Barrasso.
2 comments:
what about the 2001 Avs: bourque, blake, foote, sakic, roy, forsberg, drury, hejduk... i know theyre not the best of all time but there were five sure-fire HOF'ers on that team with some really good role players on that team too
Tiny Thompson wasn't on the Bruins when they won the Stanley Cup in 1939. Everyone else, though, was.
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