The Montreal Canadiens are well represented in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but a number of former Canadiens players also deserve attention. We are doing a series on a number of these former Habs greats who have a chance of being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday, June 21.
The Montreal Canadiens list of great defensemen includes Larry Robinson, Doug Harvey, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard. All players who have been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Those players all played the majority, if not all, of their careers with the Canadiens.
There are other Hall of Fame players that came through Montreal like Chris Chelios though he did not play the bulk of his career with the Canadiens. Then, there is another defenseman who played a brief stretch with the Canadiens, but really should be getting the call to The Hall in the very near future.
Sergei Gonchar did not play long in Montreal. In fact, he suited up for the final 45 games of his career with the Canadiens and that was it. While his stint with the Canadiens was short, his time before he arrived in Montreal display the stats of a Hall of Fame player.
There is no doubt the first round pick in 1992 was an offensive-minded defenseman. But he could really pile up points. Gonchar was never a finalist for the Norris Trophy, but he received votes in nine different seasons, including six different top-ten finishes.
He was clearly among the best defensemen in the world for a decade between 1999-2009. While he did not win the award for best defenseman in a given season, he did show he was one of the five best defensemen over the span of a decade.
His best season came in 2002-03 when he scored 18 goals and 67 points. considering this is right in the middle of the era known as the dead puck era, that’s an incredible performance from a defenseman. Paul Pidutti recently wrote about how defenders from this era have been greatly overlooked by the Hall of Fame and Gonchar is a much deserving candidate when adjusting his statistics based on the era he played during.
Even though he played at a time when scoring was way down compared to other eras, Gonchar piled up 220 goals and 811 points. He ranks 17th all-time in points by defensemen, just behind Hall of Fame member Doug Wilson who played during the high-flying 1980’s.
Even without adjusting for his low-scoring era, Gonchar’s numbers are impressive enough to deserve Hall of Fame consideration. Considering he played when it was harder to score than ever, and his numbers are even more impressive.
From 1999-2008, Gonchar combined to score 129 goals and 485 points. No defenseman in that span had more goals and only Nicklas Lidstrom had more points. Sergei Zubov was third in points in that time with 394, nearly 100 less than Gonchar. That puts Gonchar well ahead of anyone not named Nicklas Lidstrom when it comes to scoring by a defenseman over a nine year period.
That is a long enough period of dominance to get elected to the Hall of Fame. At least it should be. Gonchar has been eligible to be voted in since 2018 but has not received the required number of votes.
Hopefully that can change this year. He certainly has the credentials of a Hall of Fame defenseman. We will find out if he gets the recognition he deserves tomorrow at 3:00 PM EST when the Hall of Fame committee announced this year’s class.
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