Four Greats Are Inducted Into the Hockey Hall of Fame

While the NHL-related news isn’t so great elsewhere, for one night the fans of the “greatest game on ice” get a feel-good story. Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic, Adam Oates and Pavel Bure each made their own indelible contributions, and it’s fitting to have them recognized for their efforts by inducting them into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If you ask anyone, even casual fans, what the most important achievement a hockey player could attain, nine out of 10 is likely to say “winning the Stanley Cup.” Oh, yeah? Well, it doesn’t matter here. Of the latest four inductees into the Hall, only Sakic has sipped from Lord Stanley’s mug (twice).

Bure came achingly close to the silverware in Game 7 of the 1994 Cup final with the Vancouver Canucks. Oates also played in a Cup final series as a member of the Washington Capitals in 1998, but they were swept by the defending champion Detroit Red Wings. Sundin never made it past the Eastern Conference finals as the longtime captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but did win three gold medals with Sweden at the World Championships and Olympic gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Yet there they were, holding their rings out for the media, all assessed as equals for their impressive achievements. Along with his Cup triumphs in 1996 and 2001, Sakic won the Conn Smythe and Hart trophies. “Super Joe” was the complete package: a scorer, a playmaker, a leader and a classy representative of the game. Oates, currently the head coach of the team he went to the Cup final with, became renowned for his passing skills; when he retired in 2004, his total of 1,079 assists was the fifth-highest ever.

Bure could electrify a crowd like few players before or since: his puckhandling abilities and incredible speed gave him the label of the “Russian Rocket.” His goal-per-game ratio (437/702) of .623 is third behind Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux, and to this point is the last player to have back-to-back 60-goal seasons.

Sundin made his mark in history by being the first European-born to be drafted first overall, and went on to be the longest European captain of an NHL team as of the end of the 2007-08 season; he is still the Maple Leafs’ all-time leader in goals (420) and points (987). But he didn’t have an easy time in Toronto.

Sakic and Sundin also have some shared history: both were selected by the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques, and both played together for the final four seasons of that club’s existence. They began to excel only after they went their separate ways: Sundin was traded to Toronto in 1994, and Sakic would move with the team to Denver where they would be rechristened the Colorado Avalanche.

While it’s intriguing to speculate on how much greater the two could have been if they had not been split apart, it’s not necessary now. Their divergent paths eventually merged and both ended up in the same place on their own merits, as they all have.