Hockey Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2022: Daniel Alfredsson, Roberto Luongo, Riikka Sallinen, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Herb Carnegie
The Hockey Hall of Fame waited two years between announcing classes, choosing no group of inductees in 2021 due to the pandemic so it first could honor the 2020 class with an in-person ceremony. On Monday, the two-year wait proved worthwhile, as the Hall Selection Committee, meeting in person for the first time since 2019, inducted a large group, mixing first-year eligible names and a few who were long overdue in the player and builder categories.
Longtime Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, 49, eligible for induction since 2017, finally got the call Monday. During his 18-year career, he racked up 444 goals and 1,157 points, including a career-high 103 during the 2005-06 season. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in 1995-96, was named a second-team all-star in 2005-06, won the King Clancy Trophy in 2011-12 for his community work and took home the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2012-13. ‘Alfie’ also led the 2006 gold-medallist Swedish Olympic team in scoring. From his debut in 1995-96 through his final season, spent with the Detroit Red Wings in 2013-14, only four players had more points than Alfredsson.
“It’s such an honor, it’s such a privilege to have been able to play this sport for a living, something I would have played for fun for my whole life without a question,” Alfredsson said on a post-induction conference call Monday. He added that he didn’t receive the news until about 8:00 p.m. Swedish time and was beginning to think he’d been passed over again. He expressed some extra gratitude toward Senators fans, who made a concerted social media effort to get him inducted this year with an #AlfietotheHall campaign.
Luongo, 43, earned the Hall call Monday as a first-year eligible player following a prolific career in which he was regularly one of the league’s top goaltenders. A three-time Vezina Trophy finalist and two-time second-team all-star, Luongo sits fourth on the NHL’s all-time wins list with 489 and ninth in save percentage at .919. He was the goaltender of record when Canada took home Olympic gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and backstopped the Vancouver Canucks to within a single win of their first Stanley Cup in 2010-11. In 2008, he became the first goalie in more than 60 years to be named captain of an NHL team. By the end of his career, was almost as famous for his social media presence as he was for his play on the ice, and that was fitting: Luongo was a progressive thinker, ahead of the curve, and he applied that philosophy to the evolution of his own game.
“That’s what helped me stay in the league for a long time,” he said on the call. “I didn’t just rely on what I knew. I was always willing to learn and improve myself and get better every day and be open minded with new techniques around goaltending, to keep up with the times and not get stuck in my ways and stay the same.”
Sallinen, 49, becomes the first Finnish women’s player inducted to the Hall after a dominant career in which she was often overlooked compared to her higher-profile Canadian and American rivals. Not only did she lead the 1998 Nagano Olympics in scoring, but she was a mainstay on Finnish national teams for multiple decades and, remarkably, returned to international competition after a 12-year hiatus and helped Finland medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics when she was in her mid-40s. She is the oldest player to win an Olympic medal and one of the greatest forwards in women’s hockey history. As Hall of Fame Selection Committee chair Mike Gartner explained Monday, the Hall had not yet successfully reached Sallinen, so she wasn’t present for the conference call.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin, 41, drafted back to back to the Canucks in 1999, had to enter the Hall together. It would’ve been strange had they not. As twins they forged, arguably, the most telepathic bond between teammates in pro hockey history, both accumulating more than 1,000 points and leading some dominant Canucks teams. Henrik won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer in 2009-10 and took home the Hart Trophy as MVP that same season, while Daniel won the scoring crown the following season and captured the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player as voted by the players. Their complementary styles – Henrik the playmaker, Daniel the scorer – made them perfectly suited linemates. Remarkably, the durable Sedins finished just 24 games and 29 points apart in their careers.
Speaking on the call Monday, Daniel Sedin expressed that, after he stopped playing, he didn’t really think about getting inducted to the Hall, but that it nevertheless felt extra special knowing he and Henrik are going in together. Alfredsson expressed his amazement on Monday that the Sedins played so long together without becoming enemies, and Daniel admitted that there was some healthy fire between the brothers at times.
“I think our goal was always to be the best players that we could be, and we tried to help each other do that,” Daniel Sedin said. “The competition side of us fuelled us, each and every day, wanting to beat Henrik, from when we were kids…In the end, if you lost, you sucked it up and moved on and tried to be better. We had our moments where we were not to happy with each other…it was more about things that happened on the ice, or I expected him to be better at certain parts of the game, but it very rarely happened.”
In the builder category, the fight to honor Herb Carnegie has finally paid off with a posthumous induction, 10 years after his death in 2012. While Willie O’Ree is famous for breaking the NHL’s color barrier in 1958, Carnegie was hockey’s first black superstar, dominating senior circuits in the era preceding O’Ree’s, playing on four Allan Cup teams. Carnegie had the necessary talent to be a dominant NHL player but was barred from competing at the time on account of his race. According to accounts from multiple Hall of Fame NHL players, Carnegie had the skills to be a star in his day had any NHL team given him a chance. He also founded one of Canada’s first hockey schools, Future Aces, in 1955 following his playing career. On Monday, Carnegie finally got long overdue acknowledgement for his contributions to hockey history.
“It’s special. My grandfather, in the BIPOC community and the sport of hockey, he was my biggest cheerleader and my role model,” said Rane Carnegie, Herb’s grandson, who had campaigned with petitions for years to get Herb inducted. “And now he’s been given the highest honor that you can get from a hockey player, to be called to the Hall and to be enshrined with the greatest. Our family is through the moon. I’m speechless. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of people, tireless efforts to help make the game more inclusive, and we’re just so thankful that we’re getting him to the place where he belongs.”
“This is just so important to so many people out there who believed in my father and everything he has done over the years,” said Bernice Carnegie, Herb’s daughter. “I’m so proud of my father and so proud to know that you’ve recognized him at this time so that so many people out there can just jump for joy, just the way our family is.”
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