Who is the biggest gap in the Hockey Hall of Fame? – Daily Faceoff

It’s Hall of Fame weekend! A large class will be inducted this Monday including Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Roberto Luongo, Daniel Alfredsson, Riikka Salinen and Herb Carnegie.

Whenever the Hall of Fame becomes their annual spotlight, the mind wheels turn around overlooked names. So, Daily Faceoff Roundtable: among eligible players, male or female, Who is your #1 in the Hall of Fame right now?

Special thanks to Adjusted Hockey founder Paul Pidutti for providing player cards statistically evaluating the case for each of the candidates listed below. His revolutionary rating system agrees with some of our tips – and disagrees with others.

MATT LARKIN: It is Rod Brind’Amour, easy. The introduction of Guy Carbonneau a few years ago changed everything. Carbonneau got the call because of his three Selke trophies. He was never an effective player on offense. Brind’Amour was one of the best defensive players of his generation, conquering two selkes but also amassing 452 goals and 1,184 points. Among eligible players not in the hall, only three have more career points. He made a huge impact on both ends of the ice, winning a Stanley Cup in 2005-06. It’s about time Rod the Bod got its share.

FRANK SERAVALLI: If you consider first-time eligible Henrik Lundqvist a suspension for the Class of 2023, it’s no longer time to include him Curtis Joseph. I’ve been pounding the pavement for CuJo for a while, but after seeing some truly quantifiable evidence from Adjusted Hockey’s Paul Pidutti in a story I wrote last week, I think the case is even stronger for him. Adjusted for era, his career is virtually indistinguishable from Lundqvist’s. Pidutti ranks him as the 17th best goalkeeper of all time when it comes to a level playing field. If all the numbers are too much for you, then let me boil Joseph’s case down to the simplest terms possible: He finished in the top five of the Vezina poll five times, including three times as a finalist. He never won the ultimate prize. But the guys behind whom he always took second place are almost all in the Hall of Fame and among the best of all time: Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy. Joseph may not be their equal, but he belongs in the same hall.

STEVEN ELLIS: I know his time in the NHL was short, but few players were as dominant as he was in the late 2000s and early 2010s Tim Thomas. In an era that featured Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, Miikka Kiprusoff, Roberto Luongo, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Miller and Carey Price, Tim Thomas competed and won two Vezinas, a Conn Smythe, a Stanley Cup, an Olympic silver medal and was awarded twice Named an NHL first-team All-Star. Lundqvist is considered a first-choice Hall of Famer and deserves it, but Thomas has won more in less time. I would argue that what Thomas has done in a short span of time in the NHL should give him an extra boost. Hell, he’s also won major awards across Europe, and while you won’t get a fine Finnish league goalie into the HHoF, his career stretches well beyond NHL dominance. We will never see anyone at 31 dominating like Thomas. He was an old school goaltender in a time when the butterfly was standard. He was one of a kind, won everything one looks for in a Hall of Famer, and deserves to be enshrined forever. He hasn’t reached the 500-game mark, which most HHoF goalies do, but the results don’t lie.

NICK ALBERGA: give me Alexander Mogilny. First and foremost we are talking about a pioneer. He was the first defector from the USSR to play in the NHL, and that undoubtedly paved the way for many great Russian players – past and present – to do their thing. Additionally, which again shouldn’t be taken lightly, he was also one hell of a player, scoring 473 goals and 1,032 points in a solid 16-year career. Additionally, Mogilny is one of only eight players in NHL history to reach the 70-goal plateau in a season, and six of those eight currently play in the HHOF. As previously mentioned, his greatest personal achievement came in the 1992/93 season when he shared the league lead with Teemu Selanne (76). In addition, Mogilny won a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2000, the Lady Byng Trophy in 2003 and was also a Second Team All-Star twice (1993 + 1996).

MIKE MCKENNA: Well, Frank and Nick, you addressed my first two tips. It’s a farce that Mogilny isn’t in the Hall of Fame. And CuJo never got the respect he deserved. The Hall of Fame is a big sticking point in the goalie union. For what is considered the most important position in hockey, isn’t it funny that so few goaltenders are hired? The worst thing is that I can’t tell what the litmus test is. Does a goalie have to win a Stanley Cup? A Vezina trophy? How about a Calder Trophy? Or a William Jennings trophy? Tom Barrasso has all of the above hardware. Still, he’s not a Hall of Famer. But before Barrasso, in my book, is mike vernon. He won two Stanley Cups – with different franchises – almost a decade apart. Vernon won a Jennings trophy. In 1997 he won the Conn Smythe for the NHL’s top playoff player. And Vernon has appeared in five NHL All-Star games. It’s ridiculous that he’s not in the Hall of Fame.

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