Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Chris Pronger, Phil Housley and Angela Ruggiero will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as the Class of 2015. Bill Hay and Peter Karmanos were also inducted as builders.
Joining the 2015 inductees at the ceremony in November in Toronto will be Bob McKenzie of TSN, who won the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for excellence in hockey journalism, and Nick Nickson, radio voice of the Los Angeles Kings, who is the winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to broadcasting.
Today is a day to celebrate those who are inducted. The Hall of Fame is bang on correct in including Lidstrom, Fedorov, Pronger and Ruggiero. Whether you believe Phil Housley should be included or not (I'm torn), doesn't matter - he was a fantastic player and is now a Hall of Famer.
Some have been critical of the Hall not including the late Pat Quinn. He will get in, probably next year, but I suppose the Hall felt that they had to do some housekeeping by including Bill Hay first. After all, he was Quinn's predecessor at the Hall itself. Quinn's popularity would have overshadowed Hay, who is a very deserving honouree in his own right.
Is 2016 finally Eric Lindros' year? How about Sergei Makarov? It certainly will be a year to consider such backlogged candidates as there is no likely first year eligible inductees. Jason Arnott, Milan Hejduk, Jose Theodore, Roman Hamrlik, Vinny Prospal and Ziggy Palffy were all fine player but are not likely to ever be included.
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