The Hockey Corridor of Fame has formally introduced its 2025 class. The previous NHL gamers headlining the category of their first yr of eligibility are Zdeno Chára, Duncan Keith, and Joe Thornton, whereas Alexander Mogilny has lastly been inducted after a decades-long wait.
The total class of latest Corridor of Famers, together with girls’s gamers and builders, is as follows:
Chára: A seven-time All-Star who captained the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 2011, the 6-foot-9 defenseman was also a six-time Norris Trophy finalist and won the award in 2009. Known more for his two-way prowess than his pure offense or shutdown ability, he was a top-four threat well into his 40s and sits seventh on the all-time leaderboard with 1,680 regular-season appearances, passing Chris Chelios for many amongst defensemen in his remaining season with the Islanders three years in the past. He’s already within the IIHF Corridor of Fame and helped his native Slovakia to silver medals on the 2000 and 2012 World Championships.
Keith: Like Chára, Keith was one of the crucial dominating two-way defenders of the wage cap period. Whereas he doesn’t have the profession size or end-to-end consistency Chára boasted, Keith’s peaks have been greater, notably offensively, and he was the Blackhawks’ undisputed high defender on their Stanley Cup wins in 2010, 2013, and 2015. He performed 17 NHL seasons, the primary 16 of which got here in a Chicago uniform. He averaged over 23 minutes per sport in all of these seasons and was a two-time Norris finalist, profitable it on each events in 2010 and 2014. He fell in need of breaking Doug Wilson’s file for all-time factors by a Blackhawks defender however ranks second with 625 in 1,192 video games. It’s value noting his 421 even-strength factors are more than Wilson’s 408, although.
Thornton: Among the finest playmakers of all time, he’s the one males’s participant within the class to not win a Cup and is arguably one of the best participant of all time with that doubtful distinction. It gained’t cease him from being a first-ballot Corridor of Famer, although. The four-time All-Star led the league in assists for 3 straight seasons popping out of the 2004-05 lockout and gained the league scoring title in 2005-06, recording 96 assists in 125 factors in a season that concerned one of the crucial consequential trades in league historical past, sending Thornton from Boston to San Jose. Thornton remained with the Sharks in 2020 earlier than ending his profession on a pair of one-year offers with the Maple Leafs and Panthers. He ranks sixth in league historical past with 1,714 video games performed, seventh in assists (1,190), and 14th in factors (1,539). Thornton’s 96 assists have been probably the most in a single season within the wage cap period till Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid every hit the century mark in 2023-24.
Mogilny: Mogilny, one of many sport’s true trailblazers, lastly will get the decision to the Corridor in his seventeenth yr of eligibility. The boxcar case was all the time fairly robust: a two-time All-Star, a Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2001, and 1,032 profession factors in solely 990 video games cemented him as one of many high scorers of the Nineties and early 2000s. But, Mogilny’s off-ice impression led to probably the most puzzlement about his frequent omission from the HHOF lessons. He was the primary participant to defect from the Soviet Union and be part of the NHL efficiently, becoming a member of the Sabres as a 20-year-old for the 1989-90 season. Apart from the NHL-run 1996 World Cup of Hockey, he by no means represented Russia internationally after doing so. Nonetheless, he gained Olympic and World Championship gold medals as a young person and is thus one among seven Russian members of the Triple Gold Membership. He now serves because the president of Amur Khabarovsk of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Jennifer Botterill: Probably the most adorned Canadian girls’s gamers of all time, Botterill retired in 2011 earlier than skilled girls’s hockey really took off. Nonetheless, she gained 5 World Championship gold medals (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007) and was a two-time MVP on the event. She additionally helped Canada win Olympic gold in 2002, 2006, and 2010, posting a 4-11-15 scoring line in 21 video games. She additionally recorded 340 factors in simply 113 video games throughout her four-year NCAA profession at Harvard.
Brianna Decker: Decker, 34, is among the few girls’s gamers to get in on her first yr of eligibility. She retired in 2022 after representing the USA on the Olympics for the third time, having gained gold there in 2018. She additionally gained six World Championships (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) and gained an Isobel Cup championship with the Boston Pleasure of the Nationwide Girls’s Hockey League in 2016. She scored 60 factors in 33 NWHL video games over two seasons and in addition added 58 factors in 35 CWHL video games.
Jack Parker: Already within the U.S. Hockey Corridor of Fame as a builder, the 80-year-old Parker now will get the decision to the Corridor 12 years after his retirement. He’s one of many winningest coaches in NCAA historical past, serving as Boston College’s head coach from 1973-74 till his retirement — a 40-year run. He was a seven-time Hockey East champion with the Terriers and won NCAA Coach of the 12 months honors in 1975, 1978, and 2009.
Danièle Sauvageau: Sauvageau makes historical past as the primary girl to be inducted into the HHOF as a builder. She was additionally the primary girl to teach within the QMJHL when she was named an assistant with the Montreal Rocket for the 1999-00 season. She at the moment serves because the GM of the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire and coached Canada to a gold medal on the 2002 Winter Olympics.
