With rumors swirling for over a week now, WIM has learned that the news will finally be made official: Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull are heading into hockey immortality as two of the newest members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“The Captain” will go into the Hall as a three-time Stanley Cup winner as a player, along with a gold medal winner in the 2002 Olympics. His individual awards include a Lester B. Pearson Award, Conn Smythe Trophy, Selke Trophy and Masterton Trophy. Yzerman has the sixth highest point total in NHL history (1,755), trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Ron Francis and Marcel Dionne, all of who are already enshrined in the HOF.
As for Hull, he enters the Hall as a two time Cup winner (Dallas, Detroit) and will join his father, Bobby (1983) in the Hall. as the first father/son duo to be enshrined. {Correction, see below} Hull enters the Hall with 741 regular season goals, third on the all-time regular season scoring list.
The induction ceremony will take place on November 9 in Toronto. Congratulations to both Steve and Brett!
*UPDATE(11:08 AM): Expect the official announcement to come down at about 3:30 PM today.
Correction: Stu Hackel from over at the New York Times correctly pointed out that Brett/Bobby Hull are NOT the first father/son player duo to be enshrined in the Hall, as Lester and Lynn Patrick, 1947 and 1980 respectively, were both inducted as players. From the man himself:
“Lester Patrick and Lynn Patrick were both inducted as players. Lynn’s son Craig was inducted as a builder, so that’s three generations. Foster Hewitt and his father Wiliam A. Hewitt were both inducted as builders and Foster’s son (W.A.’s grandson) Bill was inducted as a broadcaster, which is also three generations. Dick Irvin Sr.is in as a player and his son Dick Jr. is in as a broadcaster. Arthur Wirtz and his son Bill WIrtz are both in as builders, as are George Brown and Walter Brown and Charles Adams and Weston Adams.”
Circle takes the square on this one. Thanks for the correction, Stu. I owe you a beer.
