Looking at candidates for the 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame class
The 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame class is going to be loaded.
After a year-and-a-half of waiting, the class of 2020, which featured Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, Kevin Lowe, Doug Wilson, Ken Holland and Kim St. Pierre, was finally inducted to the Hall on Monday evening.
The HHOF decided not to have a class of 2021 so that the class of 2020 could have its day in the sun. The class of 2020 would have been enshrined in the Hall last November, but the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way.
So, here we are now with two years worth of first-time eligible players along with a long list of usual suspects awaiting a call from Lanny McDonald.
Let’s take a look at how the Hockey Hall of Fame’s class of 2022 might look…
First-time eligible players…
Henrik and Daniel Sedin
The Sedin twins were drafted together, played their entire careers together, had their jerseys retired in Vancouver together and will go into the Hall of Fame together.
Truly one of the most unique duos in hockey history, the Canucks drafted Henrik and Daniel Sedin with the No. 2 and No. 3 overall picks in the 1999 NHL Draft. It took them some time to adjust to the North American game, but the two of them dominated the NHL for a decade after the 2004-05 lockout.
Daniel Sedin played in 1,306 games and scored 393 goals and 1,041 points. He won the Art Ross Trophy with a 104-point showing in 2010-11 and was also awarded the Lester B. Pearson Award as the league’s most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players’ Association.
Henrik Sedin played in 1,330 games and scored 240 goals and 1,070 points. He won the Art Ross Trophy after scoring 112 points in 2009-10 and was awarded the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
Both Sedins won gold medals at the 2006 Olympics with Team Sweden.
Roberto Luongo
Next year’s class could certainly have a major Canucks’ flavor.
The Sedin twins appear to be locks to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and their former teammate Roberto Luongo could very likely join them.
Luongo played 19 seasons in the NHL and posted a .919 save percentage, the highest of any goaltender to appear in at least 900 NHL games. He sits fourth in league history with 489 wins and ninth with 77 shutouts.
While Luongo never won a Stanley Cup, he has two gold medals representing Canada at the Olympic Games.
Henrik Zetterberg
Another member of that gold medal-winning team from Sweden who could be a part of 2022’s HHOF class is Henrik Zetterberg.
A seventh-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 1999, the same year as the Sedin twins, Zetterberg broke into the league with a 44-point season in 2002-03. After Steve Yzerman retired, Zetterberg was a key member of the next group in Detroit to carry the torch.
He scored 337 goals and 960 points over 1,082 games, all with the Red Wings, and helped the team win the 2008 Stanley Cup. Zetterberg was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP that year after scoring 27 points in 22 games in Detroit’s run.
Meghan Duggan
Four years after captaining the United States to a gold medal at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, Meghan Duggan is a very good bet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Duggan has an extensive resume at the international level. She won silver with the United States in 2010 and 2014 and then helped the team win their second-ever gold medal in 2018. Duggan also won seven gold medals with the United States at the World Hockey Championship, including as captain in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
All told, Duggan played 144 games with the U.S. women’s national team from 2007-18, scoring 43 goals and 78 points.
Duggan also had an impressive college career. She scored 238 points over four seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers and helped the team win the NCAA Division I national championship three times.
Caroline Ouellette
Carolina Ouellette is one of three women players who has won at least four Olympic gold medals, along with Canadian legends Hayley Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford. Soon, she’ll join those two former teammates in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Ouellette won gold at the Olympics with Canada in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014, scoring nine goals and 26 points over the course of 20 games. She’s third all-time in scoring for the Canadian women’s national team with 242 points in 220 games, behind only Wickenheiser and Hefford.
She’s also a member of the women’s Triple Gold Club with wins at the Olympics, World Championships, and Clarkson Cup.
Could this be the year…?
Daniel Alfredsson
Ottawa Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson has been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 2017 but he continues to get passed over.
Alfredsson scored 444 goals and 1,157 points over the course of 1,246 NHL games during an 18-season career. He won the Calder Trophy for the league’s top rookie in 1996 and also won the King Clancy Trophy and Mark Messier Award later in his career.
Though he never won a Stanley Cup, Alfredsson was a key member of the 2006 gold medal-winning Sweden team at the Olympics. He ranks second in all-time scoring among Swedes in the NHL, behind only Mats Sundin, another player who never won a Stanley Cup or a major NHL award.
Patrik Elias
Boasting a similar resume to the class of 2020 inductee Marian Hossa is Czech winger, Patrik Elias.
Elias holds New Jersey Devils records with 408 goals, 1,025 points, 45 playoff goals, and 125 playoff points and he sits second behind only Jaromir Jagr for all-time NHL points among Czech players.
Like Hossa, Elias never won a major award in the NHL, but he did win two Stanley Cups with the Devils, which should help his case.
Alexander Mogilny
The first-ever Soviet player to defect west and the first-ever Russian captain in NHL history has been passed over for the Hall of Fame for over a decade.
Alexander Mogilny broke into the NHL with a 43-point season as a rookie with the Buffalo Sabres in 1989-90. A few years later, he exploded for 76 goals, tied for the league lead with rookie sensation, Teemu Selanne.
Mogilny played in 990 NHL games over 16 seasons and scored 473 goals and 1,032 points. He won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000 and also won an Olympic gold medal with the Soviet Union in 1988.
If Paul Kariya is able to get into the Hall with similar production minus a Stanley Cup, Mogliny should be able to get in eventually.
Sergei Gonchar
A defenseman with a similar case to Elias and Mogilny as a productive player with Stanley Cup pedigree is Sergei Gonchar, who has been passed over since 2018.
Gonchar spent 20 seasons in the NHL and scored 220 goals and 811 points over the course of 1,301 games. He ranks 16th in NHL all-time scoring among defensemen and is ninth in all-time scoring among Russians.
Gonchar was a key member of the Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup team in 2009 and he also won the Cup two more times with the Penguins as a coach in 2016 and 2017.
Rod Brind’Amour
Viewed as one of the better two-way forwards in the history of the NHL, Rod Brind’Amour could have his Hall of Fame case helped by his ongoing success as the head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.
As a player, Brind’Amour scored 452 goals and 1,184 points over the course of 1,484 NHL games. He captained the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006 and also won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward in 2006 and 2007.
Brind’Amour also earned the Jack Adams Award in 2021 after coaching Carolina to a 36-12-8 record.
Jennifer Botterill
Another Canadian women’s hockey legend, Botterill will find herself in the Hockey Hall of Fame eventually.
She won Olympic gold medals with Canada in 2002, 2006, and 2010, and also helped her country win five World Championship golds while scoring 164 points in 162 games at the international level.
Before that, Botterill had an incredible college career. Botterill was a two-time winner of the Patty Kazmeier Award, which recognizes the top women’s college player, and she scored 340 points in 113 games for Harvard.
Herb Carnegie
A Hall of Fame induction that’s long overdue is the late Herb Carnegie, who passed away back in 2012.
Carnegie had a successful career playing professionally in Quebec in the 1940s and 1950s, where he would three consecutive Most Valuable Player awards. His career was highlighted by a dominant 127-point season playing with Sherbrooke Saint-Francois in 1947-48.
Carnegie could have become the first Black player in the NHL. He was offered a minor league contract by the New York Rangers after that aforementioned 1947-48 season, but he turned it down because it was for less money than he was earning playing in Quebec.
After retiring from the game of hockey in 1953, Carnegie started the Future Aces Hockey School, one of the first hockey schools in Canada. In 1954, he wrote the “Future Aces Creed” in an attempt to foster respect, tolerance, diversity, and sportsmanship among young people.