The NHL offseason has begun, and award season has been in full swing. Lane Hutson got the big prize of rookie of the year, and Nick Suzuki got some votes for the Hart, but there was one accolade many Canadiens fans thought would come to the retired Carey Price: the first ballot Hall-Of-Fame.
Price played his final game on April 29th, 2022, the final game of the 2022 season against the Florida Panthers. Despite playing the entire back-up Panthers squad, it was one of the most special games in recent history. The team scored 10 goals, the number of recently passed away superstar Guy Lafleur, Cole Caufield had his first hat-trick, and Price won what would be his final game.
NHL Hall-of-Fame rules dictate that players must have retired at least three years before their induction. Despite this, three players have played in the NHL after being elected into the Hall-of-Fame: the aforementioned Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, and Gordie Howe.
And ten players were deemed exceptional and had the waiting period waived, including two former Canadiens: Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard. The others are the best of the best: Dit Clapper, Red Kelly, Ted Lindsay, Terry Sawchuk, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky.
No one thought that Price would garner the exceptional status, but many, mostly Habs fans, figured that Price's play, accolades, solo awards and team records would mean that he would get into the Hall-of-Fame on his first ballot (the first opportunity he could), but that is not the case.
The ones who took his place
Six players were inducted into the Hall-Of-Fame, the maximum amount allowed. Since 2010, the players have been broken into four men and two women.
The two women elected were Jennifer Botteril and Brianna Decker. They didn't take a spot from Price, and both are extremely deserving to be in the Hall-Of-Fame, as two of the best womens hockey players of all time.
The first man inducted is such a straightforward answer, people have been talking about it since 2009. Alex Mogilny played for a long time, won a lot of awards, put up fantastic numbers, and was a groundbreaking player for the Soviet Union, and yet it took over a decade to become inducted.
Mogilny's career started faster than anyone else's in the NHL, as he scored 20 seconds into his first game, the fastest first NHL goal ever. Mogilny was also the first player to defect from the USSR and play in the NHL.
Mogilny played for 20 years, 990 games, 473 goals and 1,032 points. In 1992-93, Mogilny scored 76 goals, which is the fifth most goals in one season in NHL history. The only question is why wasn't he inducted earlier?
The other three inductees were all in their first year of eligibility, which is the same place that Carey Price would have been. Since the maximum amount of players were inducted, one of these three would have had to be left off the ballot.
First is Duncan Keith, the long-time defender for the Chicago Blackhawks and the one year wonder with the Edmonton Oilers. As a member of the Blackhawks, Keith won three Stanley Cups, two Norris Trophies and a Conn Smythe Trophy.
Zdeno Chara is one of the most singular hockey players in NHL history. He is 6 foot 9, the tallest NHL player of all time, and had one of the hardest shots in NHL history. Chara won the Stanley Cup in 2011, and reached the Final two other times. He won the Norris Trophy once, and played the most games by a defender in NHL History.
Joe Thornton is the only inductee that did not win the Stanley Cup. He did make the Final in 2016 with the San Jose Sharks, but lost. Thornton won the Art Ross and Hart Trophy, the year he was traded from the Bruins to the Sharks. Thornton, upon retiring, finished with the sixth most assists of all time.
The argument for Carey Price
The question is what exactly are the parameters for being inducted into the Hockey Hall-Of-Fame? Since everything is so secretive and not public, we won't ever know, but we could speculate.
The big step up for Keith and Chara is the fact that both of them won the Stanley Cup, in Keith's case multiple times. Its pretty much a fact that winning the Stanley Cup greatly helps your case in getting inducted into the Hall.
Despite the fact that the Stanley Cup is more of a team trophy, and both Duncan Keith and Zdeno Chara had much better teams to play alongside when compared to the Montreal Canadiens teams that Price had to play with. So can you really blame Price when it comes to never winning the Cup?
So by that logic, it comes down to Carey Price and Joe Thornton. Both players won the Hart Trophy, along with another major trophy, the Art Ross for Thornton and the Vezina for Price. Both were seen as the best at what they do, goaltending and playmaking, during their careers.
I think there are a couple small factors that put Thornton over Price. Unfortunately, forwards and offense tend to get more accolades than defenders and goalies. Its easier to see a high number in the points and assist column, and put Thornton ahead.
The other is that, numerically speaking, Thornton is the seventh best playmaker of all time. While Price has the most wins by a Canadiens goalie, he is quite low in the NHL wide list. Same with the career shutouts, and the other metrics goalies use (GAA and Save %) can be weirdly skewed by shorter careers.
I think those two are main reasons why Thornton made it in before Price. While I do think it would have been nice to see Price as a first ballot Hall-Of-Famer, I don't think any of the four players that were inducted this year are that egregious to have over Price. The only thing we should be taking out of this is how did it take Mogilny so long?
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