Mogilny, Thornton, Keith and Chara have been all NHL gamers, whereas Botterill and Decker are this 12 months’s girls’s inductions. Parker and Sauvageau have been inducted underneath the builder’s class.
Whereas each particular person right here has a worthy resume for induction, Mogilny is the one who actually stands out. Particularly since he had been handed over so many instances, creating increasingly more outrage and anger among the many hockey group for his continued omission.
As a participant, Mogilny’s resume is greater than sufficient.
He performed 990 regular-season video games, scored 473 targets (together with a 76-goal season) and 1,032 factors. Together with that, he was a Stanley Cup champion, a four-time All-Star and a gold medalist for the Soviet Union on the Olympics (1988), World Championships (1989) and the World Junior Championships (1989).
Whether or not it’s within the NHL or on the worldwide stage, Mogilny shined.
However that solely tells part of his story.
Mogilny can also be one of many greatest pioneers of males’s hockey as he was the primary NHL draft decide to ever defect from the Soviet Union to play within the NHL, opening the door for different gamers — together with Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure — to quickly observe in his footsteps.
Mogilny defected following the 1989 World Championships in Sweden, boarding a aircraft and heading to the US the place he would begin his profession with the Buffalo Sabres.
It was an extremely dangerous transfer for Mogilny and his household as they have been subjected to loss of life threats for leaving the Soviet Union. That resulted in an incredible locker room exchange years later — as informed by then-teammate Adrian Aucoin — between Mogilny and former head coach Mike Keenan.
“One time we’re within the locker room and Keenan is throughout him. We have been like holy s–t, usually he’s not on Mogilny like that,” Aucoin recalled.
“Mogilny seems up, he’s like, ‘Mike, have you ever ever heard of how I defected, how they f—ing threatened my household, how they wished to kill everyone? You suppose you’re f—ing scaring me?’
“We have been like, ‘Holy s–t.’ It was fairly loopy. Mike didn’t know what to say — he usually will get the final phrase.”
There are actually two primary methods for individuals to get inducted into any Corridor of Fame.
You may both be an all-time nice participant, otherwise you generally is a one that considerably adjustments the sport. Breaking a barrier, having some type of enormous accomplishment that impacts the sport, altering guidelines or one thing else equally impactful.
In Mogilny’s case, he did each.
He was not solely a Corridor of Fame participant, he additionally modified the sport by serving to to open the door for different Soviet gamers to make their approach into the NHL. It made the league higher and launched new enjoying types and expertise to the league that didn’t beforehand exist.
He ought to have been within the Corridor of Fame years in the past. The choice committee lastly corrected that mistake. Higher late than by no means.
