Monday saw the 2022 selection for the Hockey Hall of Fame announced, with Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Roberto Luongo, Daniel Alfredsson, Riikka Sallinen and Herb Carnegie all inducted this year.
With that also means that we can start looking at the potential for next year’s class, which also contains an easy selection in goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna talked on the Daily Faceoff Show about if Lundqvist is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, as well as which other players might join the 2023 Hall of Fame class.
Mike McKenna: “Lundqvist is going in first ballot. If he doesn’t, there’s something incredibly wrong with everybody. His career save percentage, his trips during the playoffs, deep runs with those teams with the New York Rangers, mainstay in net, and good until the very end. I think he’s an absolute lock.
I’m surprised still that somebody like an Alexander Mogilny or Mike Vernon aren’t really in the Hall yet; that surprises me. But of this list, who do you see as being a first-ballot Hall of Famer besides Lundqvist?”
Frank Seravalli: “That’s really it. I think you can make a really strong case for Ilya Kovalchuk as a point-per-game guy, as someone who was one of the very best goal scorers of his generation.
Justin Williams played a long time, had some impressive careers, and of course, the moniker of Mr. Game 7, but I don’t think that’s enough to get you into the Hall.
Mike Green was someone who was a two-time first-team All-Star, a two-time runner-up for the Norris Trophy. I still don’t think that’s enough to get him in. There was a significant drop-off from Green in his career, it really kind of once he left Washington, had one or two good years in Detroit , and then really was not a very productive player towards the end of his career.
And Brent Seabrook won those three Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks and was such a big part of it. Another guy that racked up close to 500 points, played a long time in the league, and chewed up a lot of minutes for the Blackhawks, but never really passed the eye test for me, and didn’t really have that sort of, if this makes any sense when I say it, the Hall of Fame aura or mystic that surrounded him.
But Lundqvist for sure; he’s the one guy as you mentioned. When you consider the first 10 years of his career, and of course he ended up winning a Vezina Trophy, but the first 10 years of his career, consecutively, he finished sixth or better in Vezina Trophy voting, a four-time finalist. Ten consecutive years of being in the top six at your position is an incredible track record of success. Also I believe a .919 career save percentage over a ton of games, almost 900 games played as a goalie, which is a huge workload.”
Mike McKenna: “It’s massive. And it’s just his consistency. Like I always looked up to Lundqvist as someone that 1) could play a lot, 2) always got the best out of the game, but also was a trendsetter. Like he really made a big impact on younger goaltenders with the way he played. We would look to people like Luongo and Lundqvist for those next wave of technological innovations, of systematic innovations, so I’m all on board the Lundqvist train.
I agree Kovalchuk might get there, but is next year the one for Mogilny? That’s the one I keep looking at. I think he deserves to be in the Hall. I’d like to see it.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, Mogilny is one, and I saw a lot of people barking about Rod Brind’Amour. I was thinking that maybe Guy Carbonneau a couple years back as an ace defensive forward really might have opened the door for someone like Brind’Amour, who just was an absolute compiler in his career. I would think that at some point, Rod Brind’Amour gets in, and it’s probably going to take a class of maybe some weaker first-time eligibles like this one upcoming in 2023, that might open the door for someone like him. There were a lot of people clamouring for Daniel Alfredsson, and of course he ends up getting in this year, so maybe moving forward in the future, Rod Brind’Amour is next up on the list.
I also wanted to point out Theo Fleury, a point-per-game player. And the way we look at mental health and how everything’s changed with the sexual abuse that he went through at the hands of Graham James, to still be a point-per-game player, to lead the league in scoring, what a fantastic career he had, and I think we should probably look at his career in a different light now then we did when he retired after the drug abuse and alcohol abuse that he went through. To get through that on the other side and have that good of a career is pretty darn incredible.”
You can watch the full episode here…
More must-reads: