Another year, another chance for Hockey Hall of Fame to finally call Rod Brind’Amour
The Hockey Hall of Fame’s selection committee will meet Wednesday, virtually for the first time. What has not changed: This is the year Rod Brind’Amour should get in. That was true last year. That was true in 2015. That was true when he became eligible in 2013.
For whatever reason, the current Carolina Hurricanes coach and former Hurricanes captain’s status as the best defensive forward of his generation hasn’t resonated with voters, even with a pair of Selke Trophies to verify that. Nor his leadership. Nor his raw numbers, which certainly clear wherever bar has been set for the Hall of Fame, and not the lowest one set by the induction of both Bernie Federko and Clark Gillies in 2002.
Just for funsies, the Carolina Hurricanes’ analytics department dug through some of the raw numbers. They do not reflect well on the committee’s work over the past seven years.
There are 36 players in NHL history who had 15 seasons with 49 or more points. Thirty-five of them are in the Hall of Fame. Want to guess who’s not?
Thirty-seven players had more than 1,100 points and won a Stanley Cup. Thirty-five are enshrined in Toronto. Vincent Damphousse is one of the two. The other lives here.
Brind’Amour is the all-time leader in faceoff percentage since those stats have been kept. He’s the oldest player to win the Selke Trophy. Seventeen players have played more than his 1,484 games. All 17 are in the Hall of Fame.
Every eligible player with more than 700 points and a Selke Trophy is in the Hall of Fame. Except one. Pavel Datsyuk, Anze Kopitar, Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Toews are all still playing, and three of them are locks. Guy Carbonneau had 663 points.
If Carbonneau’s third Selke Trophy makes up for him having half as many points as Brind’Amour, then Brind’Amour’s two Selke Trophies compared to nearly every other player in the Hall of Fame ought to get him in on their own. Carbonneau is beloved in Montreal and Dallas? Brind’Amour is beloved in Philadelphia and Raleigh, and two more different and disparate hockey markets you will not find.
This happens to be a wide-open class, with Jarome Iginla really the only consensus choice. There are some nice players out there who will be lauded for their two-way game (Marian Hossa) and leadership (Daniel Alfredsson). Brind’Amour was better than either in both categories. You think Alexander Mogilny’s 473 goals should get him in? Brind’Amour scored 452 goals and spent a bit more time in his own end while doing it. And captained a team to the Stanley Cup. And played for Canada in the Olympics.
However you want to measure Hall of Fame players, Brind’Amour measures up.
Unfortunately, odds are none of this matters. This isn’t baseball, where public opinion can sway the vote for Larry Walker. The decisions are made by only 18 people, and only those 18 people can place a name in nomination for a vote. From the outside, it feels more like fraternity rush than a selection committee. Who you know appears as important as what you actually did.
The selection committee has some very smart people on it, and a difficult job to do, but in search of consensus it tends to arrive at unfortunate, mediocre, cronyist choices over unexpected ones — which is how Peter Karmanos got in the Hall of Fame before the player who did more to get him a Stanley Cup ring than anyone.
The owner and the general manager from 2006 are both in the Hall of Fame. Not the captain.
So we’ll probably be back here at this time next year, making the same arguments, raising the same objections, pushing the same case. Maybe someone will listen then.
Maybe someone will listen now.
