Wickenheiser among six inductees into Hockey Hall of Fame
Zubov, former Bowling Green coach among six to be inducted in 2019
Associated Press
Hayley Wickenheiser was a lock to make the Hockey Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility and is the headliner of the induction class of 2019.
The Canadian hockey star was announced as part of the six-member class Tuesday that includes former NHL players Sergei Zubov and Guy Carbonneau, Czech hockey star Vaclav Nedomansky and sport builders Jim Rutherford and Jerry York.
In 79 international games over 21 seasons, Wickenheiser recorded 58 goals and 88 assists for 146 points. She won four Olympic gold medals, seven world championship golds, one Olympic silver and six world championship silvers.
Wickenheiser on Nov. 18 will be the seventh woman to go into the hall, joining Canadians Angela James, Geraldine Heaney, Danielle Goyette and Jayna Hefford and Americans Cammi Granato and Angela Ruggiero.
Wickenheiser won three Women’s World Hockey League titles and a Canadian Women’s Hockey League title. She was invited by the Philadelphia Flyers to training camp in 1998 after the Nagano Olympics, and Wickenheiser is currently assistant director of player development for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Zubov put up 888 points in 1,232 NHL games for the Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers and won the Stanley Cup twice. The Russian defenseman waited seven years for this call.
Carbonneau was a teammate of Zubov’s on the 1999 NHL champion Stars and also won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986 and 1993. He was a three-time Selke Trophy winner as the league’s best defensive forward.
Nedomansky helped Czechoslovakia earn the 1968 Olympic silver medal and the 1972 world championship. He was the first player to defect from the other side of the Iron Curtain, started in the World Hockey Association and went on to record 278 points in 421 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Rangers.
Rutherford, a longtime general manager of Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins, built teams that won the Cup in 2006, 2016 and 2017. He is one of two GMs in NHL history to win the Cup with two different teams.
“It was day where I thought, ‘Man, this is really special,”’ Rutherford said. “Now here I am.”
York coached Bowling Green and Boston College to five national titles and has the most wins of any active NCAA Division I men’s hockey coach.
“I had to sit down I was so excited,” York said.
Among those passed over by the selection committee this year were Daniel Alfredsson, Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind’Amour and Alexander Mogilny.