I opened July of 2015 with a post griping about four particular players not getting into the Hockey Hall of Fame that year.
Clearly the 18 members of the Hall's selection committee read my post and realized the error of their ways, because three of those players have since been enshrined.
But one of them is still on the outside looking in, plus there are other deserving players in the same situation, so I obviously have a little more work to do.
With this year's class of inductees having been formally enshrined last Monday, there is no better time than the present to explain why certain players need to be in the Hall. So here I go, and I am not going to include anyone who has only been eligible for a few years, for that is usually a very reasonable time to "wait" considering there are only so many slots to be filled each year. No, I am here to kvetch for people who have been snubbed for a considerable and unreasonable period of time, and of course I am going to start with the one man from my previous post who is still awaiting the call.
Alexander Mogilny
This electrifying winger was the first Soviet player to play in the NHL, and first person from outside of North America to captain an NHL team. As stated in my previous post: "After being drafted by Buffalo with the 89th overall selection in the entry draft, he defected to the United States in 1989, chose uniform number 89 (of course), and played 65 games for the Sabres during his rookie season of 1989-90... in his fourth year playing over here, he exploded for 76 goals in the 1992-93 season. In the 22 years since then, no player has managed to reach the 70-goal mark and only four (Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Alex Ovechkin, and Steven Stamkos) have managed to reach 60."
Well, in the three seasons since I typed those words, only one player (Ovechkin) has had a 50-goal campaign and nobody has gotten to 51. And it's not as if Alexander Mogilny's 76-goal campaign was some kind of flash in the pan that makes an otherwise normal career look better than it really was: He averaged better than a point per game across 16 NHL seasons, exceeding the 1,000-point plateau while playing in fewer than 1,000 games -- despite playing in the so-called dead puck era of stifling clutch-and-grab D. In all of NHL history, only 25 other people (out of 6,000 or so who have played in the league) have maintained that high a scoring clip across as many seasons as Mogilny.
He won the Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2000 and took home the Lady Byng in 2003, and before that he won an Olympic gold in 1988 and World Championship gold in 1989. The man from Khabarovsk has been retired for 12 years and it is past time to give him his plaque.
Doug Wilson
And what about this now 61-year-old Ottawa native who was an elite blueliner in three different decades? Doug Wilson was an eight-time All Star who won the Norris Trophy at a time when Denis Potvin, Ray Bourque, and Paul Coffey were all performing at their peaks. And he had four other Norris nominations plus a pair of Hart Trophy nominations. His 827 points (237, 590) are the 15th most by a defenseman in league history.
After 14 stellar campaigns with the Blackhawks from 1978 to 1991, he moved west to join the expansion San Jose Sharks and became the first captain in that team's history, tallying 48 points for them in 86 games across the final two seasons of his career. Wilson is currently the Sharks' general manager, having held that role since 2003 and having used it to turn the team into one you always see in the playoffs.
His playing career was HOF-worthy in its own right, but when you add his managerial career on top of it, he should be a shoo-in. Regrettably, he has yet to be invited after all these years.
Butch Goring
The members of the New York Islanders' old Trio Grande line have more name recognition than Butch Goring these days. But Goring was the missing piece who, once acquired, elevated the Islanders above contender status and helped transform them into one of the greatest dynasties in hockey history -- and he was already an NHL star well before they acquired him.
When the sun rose on March 10, 1980, Goring was in his ninth season with the LA Kings and ranked as that franchise's all-time leader in both goals and assists. He was an institution in LA and the notion of playing for another team was the furthest thing from his mind. But when the sun set that day, he had become a New York Islander by virtue of a blockbuster trade that is still considered, all these years later, to be the gold standard of trade deadline deals.
At the time of the trade, the Islanders -- who had been considered Cup contenders for a few years but had never made it to the finals -- were in position for a playoff spot but had been playing inconsistent all season. Taking over the center ice position on their second line, Goring made an immediate impact and they went undefeated in the 12 games between the trade and the end of the regular season. Then came the post-season, when he racked up 19 points in 21 games to help lead them to the first of what would become four consecutive Stanley Cups.
The following spring, Goring brought home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after tallying 20 points in the 18 post-season games that it took for the Isles to win their second title. He was a member of their dynasty for all four of their titles, and also for their fifth straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1984, which they lost to Edmonton. Across that span he averaged more than two-thirds of a point per playoff game while also accounting for 188 regular season points.
Hailing from Saint Boniface, Manitoba, he was strong, speedy, and scrappy. In addition to being a leader and champion, he ranks third in Islanders history for shooting percentage, second in Kings history for short-handed goals, and third in Kings history for hat tricks. Butch Goring has now been Hall of Fame eligible for thirty freakin' years. Put him in!
Theo Fleury
At 5'6" and 180 pounds, Theoren Wallace Fleury was a generation or two ahead of his time, a precursor to the small and shifty players who now seem to own the league. He was dripping with so much talent, and played with so much unpredictability and passion, that he always seemed to appear on highlight reels -- most famously for this overtime goal and celebration which capped Game Six of Calgary's 1991 playoff series against Edmonton.
Fleury won the Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989 (that franchise's first and still only championship) and won Olympic gold with Team Canada in 2002 (breaking an almost unfathomable 50-year drought for hockey's home country). He was such a fan favorite in Calgary that once, when his jersey was covered with blood and the officials sent him to the locker room to change into a clean one, a fan removed his own jersey and tossed it to Fleury from the stands so that he wouldn't have to miss a shift. When the Flames traded him in 1999 because they feared they could not afford to pay him when he hit free agency at season's end, he was the organization's all-time leading scorer and tearfully remarked that "a piece of my heart left today, but the biggest part is here in Calgary and always will be."
So why isn't this native of Oxbow, Saskatchewan already in the Hall of Fame? It's hard not to believe that his de facto exclusion is all because of the messy way his NHL career concluded.
In the summer of 2000 he entered the league's substance abuse program to confront addictions to alcohol and cocaine. Then his 2000-01 season ended early because he re-entered the program with 20 games remaining... Fleury did not miss any games during the 2001-02 season, but he admitted that he was still struggling with addiction, and his behavior became erratic; he got into a fistfight with the San Jose Sharks mascot, and on one occasion when he was called for a penalty he left the arena instead of just going to the penalty box... Two days prior to the start of the 2002-03 season the NHL suspended him for two months for violating the terms of the substance abuse program, and in January 2003, after having served the suspension, he got into a fight with bouncers at a bar in Columbus... Three months later the NHL suspended him for violating the substance abuse program yet again, and that suspension marked the end of his NHL career.
However, we would later learn that there is more to Fleury than that checklist of derogatory marks. It turns out he was sexually abused as a youth by his juniors coach, Graham James, who of course did the same to other boys including eventual NHL player Sheldon Kennedy. James wound up going to prison for his crimes, and it was those crimes that fueled much of Fleury's angst and addictive behavior.
Today Fleury is clean, participates in multiple charities, and cites September 18, 2005 -- when "I just basically said, please, God, take away the obsession to drink and do drugs" -- as his day of sobriety.
Hockey-wise, at the NHL level he averaged more than a point per regular season game and more than a point per playoff game in a career that spanned 16 seasons and more than 1,100 contests. He did that despite battling the demons mentioned above, and despite playing with Crohn's disease as well.
Plus, after being banished by the NHL, he proved his love for the game by heading to Northern Island and playing for the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League, and by playing for free for the Horse Lake Thunder of the senior amateur North Peace Hockey League.
From where I'm sitting, Theo Fleury's battle with and eventual victory over his personal demons makes him more deserving of an induction to the Hall. Not less. I can think of no reason not to include him -- or Alexander Mogilny, Doug Wilson, or Butch Goring -- in next year's class.
His playing career was HOF-worthy in its own right, but when you add his managerial career on top of it, he should be a shoo-in. Regrettably, he has yet to be invited after all these years.
Butch Goring
The members of the New York Islanders' old Trio Grande line have more name recognition than Butch Goring these days. But Goring was the missing piece who, once acquired, elevated the Islanders above contender status and helped transform them into one of the greatest dynasties in hockey history -- and he was already an NHL star well before they acquired him.
When the sun rose on March 10, 1980, Goring was in his ninth season with the LA Kings and ranked as that franchise's all-time leader in both goals and assists. He was an institution in LA and the notion of playing for another team was the furthest thing from his mind. But when the sun set that day, he had become a New York Islander by virtue of a blockbuster trade that is still considered, all these years later, to be the gold standard of trade deadline deals.
At the time of the trade, the Islanders -- who had been considered Cup contenders for a few years but had never made it to the finals -- were in position for a playoff spot but had been playing inconsistent all season. Taking over the center ice position on their second line, Goring made an immediate impact and they went undefeated in the 12 games between the trade and the end of the regular season. Then came the post-season, when he racked up 19 points in 21 games to help lead them to the first of what would become four consecutive Stanley Cups.
The following spring, Goring brought home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after tallying 20 points in the 18 post-season games that it took for the Isles to win their second title. He was a member of their dynasty for all four of their titles, and also for their fifth straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1984, which they lost to Edmonton. Across that span he averaged more than two-thirds of a point per playoff game while also accounting for 188 regular season points.
Hailing from Saint Boniface, Manitoba, he was strong, speedy, and scrappy. In addition to being a leader and champion, he ranks third in Islanders history for shooting percentage, second in Kings history for short-handed goals, and third in Kings history for hat tricks. Butch Goring has now been Hall of Fame eligible for thirty freakin' years. Put him in!
Theo Fleury
At 5'6" and 180 pounds, Theoren Wallace Fleury was a generation or two ahead of his time, a precursor to the small and shifty players who now seem to own the league. He was dripping with so much talent, and played with so much unpredictability and passion, that he always seemed to appear on highlight reels -- most famously for this overtime goal and celebration which capped Game Six of Calgary's 1991 playoff series against Edmonton.
Fleury won the Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989 (that franchise's first and still only championship) and won Olympic gold with Team Canada in 2002 (breaking an almost unfathomable 50-year drought for hockey's home country). He was such a fan favorite in Calgary that once, when his jersey was covered with blood and the officials sent him to the locker room to change into a clean one, a fan removed his own jersey and tossed it to Fleury from the stands so that he wouldn't have to miss a shift. When the Flames traded him in 1999 because they feared they could not afford to pay him when he hit free agency at season's end, he was the organization's all-time leading scorer and tearfully remarked that "a piece of my heart left today, but the biggest part is here in Calgary and always will be."
So why isn't this native of Oxbow, Saskatchewan already in the Hall of Fame? It's hard not to believe that his de facto exclusion is all because of the messy way his NHL career concluded.
In the summer of 2000 he entered the league's substance abuse program to confront addictions to alcohol and cocaine. Then his 2000-01 season ended early because he re-entered the program with 20 games remaining... Fleury did not miss any games during the 2001-02 season, but he admitted that he was still struggling with addiction, and his behavior became erratic; he got into a fistfight with the San Jose Sharks mascot, and on one occasion when he was called for a penalty he left the arena instead of just going to the penalty box... Two days prior to the start of the 2002-03 season the NHL suspended him for two months for violating the terms of the substance abuse program, and in January 2003, after having served the suspension, he got into a fight with bouncers at a bar in Columbus... Three months later the NHL suspended him for violating the substance abuse program yet again, and that suspension marked the end of his NHL career.
However, we would later learn that there is more to Fleury than that checklist of derogatory marks. It turns out he was sexually abused as a youth by his juniors coach, Graham James, who of course did the same to other boys including eventual NHL player Sheldon Kennedy. James wound up going to prison for his crimes, and it was those crimes that fueled much of Fleury's angst and addictive behavior.
Today Fleury is clean, participates in multiple charities, and cites September 18, 2005 -- when "I just basically said, please, God, take away the obsession to drink and do drugs" -- as his day of sobriety.
Hockey-wise, at the NHL level he averaged more than a point per regular season game and more than a point per playoff game in a career that spanned 16 seasons and more than 1,100 contests. He did that despite battling the demons mentioned above, and despite playing with Crohn's disease as well.
Plus, after being banished by the NHL, he proved his love for the game by heading to Northern Island and playing for the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League, and by playing for free for the Horse Lake Thunder of the senior amateur North Peace Hockey League.
From where I'm sitting, Theo Fleury's battle with and eventual victory over his personal demons makes him more deserving of an induction to the Hall. Not less. I can think of no reason not to include him -- or Alexander Mogilny, Doug Wilson, or Butch Goring -- in next year's class.
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