The Puck Stops Here

The Hall of Fame Committee made the right moves yesterday by inducting Ron Francis, Al MacInnis, Mark Messier and Scott Stevens into the Hall of Fame in the player category. Also inducted was Jim Gregory as a builder. Gregory served as Toronto Maple Leaf GM from 1969-79, but is inducted mostly for his work in the NHL head office since then where he has been in charge of the central scouting office and the vice president of hockey operations. The player selections are the ones I predicted. While I feel that the Hall of Fame committee has made some poor selections in the recent past, they did not this year. I guess with the huge group of first time eligible players who have not played since the lockout, they had to do the sensible thing and induct the worthy players. Next year, there are no new first time inductees (since there are no players who played in the 2004/05 season), so they will have to take a second look at the remaining eligible players who didn't make it due to the numbers game this year. They include Adam Oates, Igor Larionov, Doug Gilmour, Phil Housley, Dino Ciccarelli, Manon Rheaume, Sergei Makarov and Mark Howe, all players I feel are worthy of induction as well as other candidates like Claude Lemieux, Glenn Anderson, Tom Barrasso and Pavel Bure who will receive some support, but I would not support myself.