The Hockey Hall of Fame has announced the 2016 class, and with no slam dunk first ballot candidates out there, it made for a very interesting vote. The announcements are in and Eric Lindros headlines a very unique class.
Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov, Rogie Vachon and Pat Quinn your 2016 HHOF class. Terrific choices. Long overdue for the Big E.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 27, 2016
Lindros had 865 points in 760 games, and for long stretches of time with the Philadelphia Flyers he was the most dominating player in the league. If concussion issues didn’t derail him, he would have been a Hall of Famer long before today, and perhaps in the discussion as one of the greatest of the greats in hockey history.
Sergei Makarov was one of the first players from the legendary Soviet teams to make their way to the NHL and made an immediate impact with the Calgary Flames, winning rookie of the year in 1990. His induction was as much about his play in Russia as it was about his time in the NHL, which was limited with the Sharks and the Flames.
Rogie Vachon shared the Vezina trophy with Canadiens teammate Gump Worsley in 1968, but he’s more known as backstopping the expansion Los Angeles Kings to respectability in the early 70’s. Vachon went 171-148-66 over seven seasons with the Kings.
The late Pat Quinn played nine seasons in the league but made his mark as a coach, reaching his pinnacle by taking the seventh seeded Vancouver Canucks all the way to the Stanley Cup Final and taking the heavily favored Rangers to seven games in 1994. Quinn also spent seven seasons in Toronto and made the Maple Leafs a perennial playoff participant.
A very good and deserving class. Notably absent after some speculation include 600-goal scorer Dave Andreychuk, and Paul Kariya who averaged a point per game over his career which, like Lindros, was cut short by injury. But Kariya’s signature moment from Game 6 of the 2003 Final still remains one of my favorite in hockey:
I wonder if Kariya’s case would have been helped had only the Ducks won Game 7 that season.
