Lidstrom, Housley, Pronger and Federov to the Hall

[yave1964]

 

Congrats to the class of 2015 for their selections to the hockey hall of fame, Nick Lidstrom, Phil Housley, Chris Pronger and Sergei Federov. Well deserved gentleman!

[J0e Th0rnton]

 

Congrats to the class of 2015 for their selections to the hockey hall of fame, Nick Lidstrom, Phil Housley, Chris Pronger and Sergei Federov. Well deserved gentleman!

good god.

 

 

Housley? My dad is going to have a fit

"One of the most awful defensive players I have ever seen!"

[yave1964]

IMHO the Hall absolutely got it right.

 

Lidstrom was the no brainer, one of the two or three greatest defensemen to have ever laced up the skates, looking at him in interviews he looks to still be in mid season form like he could lace them up right now and give 20 minutes a night better than most.

 

Pronger, the only issue as far as most see it is the special exemption allowing him to be retired and yet not retired. His contract was just traded two days ago, he works for the league, is still technically an active player. I don't care, he was going to get in anyway and deserves to be a first ballot HOFer.

 

Federov was one of the sweetest two way players to have ever laced them up, played with the Wings and won three cups and was a member of their feared Russian Red Army line. Finally enshrined.

 

And last but not least, Phil Housley finally gets his due. In spite of being a defenseman, he is the second highest scoring USA born player in the history of the game behind only Mike Modano. Under the radar for his entire career, looking back on it now it is hard to see what took so long.

 

Angela Ruggiero became the 4th woman ever selected. Considered to be the Bobby Orr of womens hockey, she even played one game in the old Central Hockey league against all men competition and had an assist and was a plus 2.

 

One heck of a class.

[yave1964]

good god.

 

 

Housley? My dad is going to have a fit

"One of the most awful defensive players I have ever seen!"

Housley put up some serious numbers for a long time and is the second highest scoring USA born player behind Modano. The Hall certainly has selected far worse.

[ScottM]

Housley? My dad is going to have a fit

"One of the most awful defensive players I have ever seen!"

 

 

I surely wouldn't have Housley as my "shut-down" defenseman, but HOF'er? Definitely.

 

 

Housley put up some serious numbers for a long time and is the second highest scoring USA born player behind Modano. The Hall certainly has selected far worse.

 

*cough* Dino Ciccarelli *cough*

[yave1964]

I am a huge fan of similarity scores, basically the players whose statistics most closely mirror that of a particular player. The top ten for Housley:

Chelios          HOF

Larry Murphy HOF
Robinson       HOF

Zubov

Niederreitter  HOF

MacInnis        HOF

Stevens         HOF

Leetch           HOF

Clancy           HOF

Pronger         HOF

 

9 of his top ten comps are in the hall. A unbelievably solid group.

 An argument can be made that he is/was a compiler, never an award winner, never won a cup, he hung around forever and his numbers do to a certain amount reflect the era that he played in and the fact that he played for 21 mostly injury free years. All that is true.

 But the numbers are just too much. Even if you denigrate them due to his era by ten percent he still would have HOFer numbers. And don't forget, most of his best comps played the same era so you would have to take away from them as well.

 

7 all star games

All rookie team

2nd team all star in 1991-92

17th all time in games played 6th most among all d-men

20th all time in assists, 5th most among all d-men

38th all time in points, 4th most among all d-men

 

So his defense would have to have been pretty awful to have offset his epic offensive output. Well he was a minus 53 for his career, but most offensive d-men tend to make their hay on the power play and Housley was the prototypical of this type. A total of 7 times he was double digits in the minus. This counts too.

 

 My opinion is there is a fair share of bad, he did not deserve to be a first ballot HOFer but the good far outweighs the bad numbers wise.  He is in, he deserves it, and it is a good day for American Hockey between he and Ruggiero

[Old School Hockey]

I thought only retired players could be elected to the HOF?

[ScottM]

@yave1964 Good post. That makes the case for Housley very well. 

 

 

I thought only retired players could be elected to the HOF?

 

A special exemption was made for Pronger. He's a definite HOF'er, but I think the exemption is stupid. Make him retire first.

[yave1964]

By his merits Pronger is an absolute lock as a Hall of Famer. His concussion issues derailed his career. He deserves to be in, it was a genuine nice deed by the league to allow him in now. IMHO it is a classy act.

[AJgoal]

No special exemption was made. Here is the relevant criteria (http://www.hhof.com/htmlinduct/indelection.shtml): " Must have not played in a professional or international hockey game during any of the three (3) playing seasons prior to his or her election." Note the word "retire" is conspicuously absent. Pronger has not played, therefore, he was eligible.

 

The Hall does not equal The NHL. They are two separate entities. The league has no say in Pronger's eligibility.

[yave1964]

No special exemption was made. Here is the relevant criteria (http://www.hhof.com/htmlinduct/indelection.shtml): " Must have not played in a professional or international hockey game during any of the three (3) playing seasons prior to his or her election." Note the word "retire" is conspicuously absent. Pronger has not played, therefore, he was eligible.

 

The Hall does not equal The NHL. They are two separate entities. The league has no say in Pronger's eligibility.

AJ Goal thank you for clarifying that up for all of us.

[blocker]

Every time I hear someone complain about a young player, I think of Chris Pronger.   

 

I watched Hartford's preseason in his first year.  He stunk.  

 

But, if one looked hard enough, there were sure signs.

 

Sometimes, it's hard to evaluate young players.  Especially, big kids.  

 

Wonder how he'd have made out if he'd played for one of the too many NHL "coaches" who sacrifice rookies.  

[radoran]

I don't understand the "need" to put a player under active contract in the Hall.

Technically it might be "within the rules " bit they have been talking about a "special exemption" for a while now.

Can't wait for "Chris Pronger Night " in Glendale. Or Hamilton. Or wherever.

Will Arizona retire his number?

[hf101]

Congrats to those selected, however when are they going to induct Lindros?

 

He was the fourth-fastest player to reach 300 and 400 points (behind Wayne Gretzy, Mario Lemieux and Peter Stastny), He was the fifth fastest to 500 (those four and Mike Bossy. He was the sixth-fastest to 600 (those five and Jari Kurri). His overall era-adjusted PPG of 1.17 was 12th all time.  By the time his career ended in 2006, Lindros had put up 865 points in 760 games, largely in the dead-puck era, made seven All-Star teams, won a Hart Trophy in 1995 and finished in the top 10 in voting four other times. 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/story/2015-06-29/hockey-hall-of-fame-class-2015-snubs-eric-lenders-paul-kariya-mark-reecho-nicklas-lidstrom

[J0e Th0rnton]

Housley put up some serious numbers for a long time and is the second highest scoring USA born player behind Modano. The Hall certainly has selected far worse.

As predicted, my Dad is livid at Housley before Lindros lol.

In his words, Housley was "Very good" offensively for a long time, but never an elite in the sense of Norris consideration or best player in the league and he hates inducting very good players. Place of birth should have no bearing on it if you were consistently not elite or one of the top 10 players in the league for several years

[WordsOfWisdom]

 

Congrats to the class of 2015 for their selections to the hockey hall of fame, Nick Lidstrom, Phil Housley, Chris Pronger and Sergei Federov. Well deserved gentleman!

 

If I had to grade them, my first thoughts are:

 

Lidstrom: A+

Housley: B+

Pronger: A

Fedorov: A-

 

Quick quips:

 

Lidstrom and Pronger were probably the two best of their generation, although they were polar opposites in style. Pronger takes a minor hit to his grade for dirty play. Fedorov gets dinged for perhaps hanging on too long and tarnishing his reputation slightly with his dreadful final few years in the NHL. Housley is viewed as the weakest of this class by far, not in Lidstrom or Pronger's league. Very good but not ever the best.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts.