When Paul Kariya’s agent announced that the winger will miss the 2010-11 season because of concussion problems, many people speculated that we might not see any more of Teemu Selanne’s former running mate. Being that he’s been bothered by injuries the last couple years and will turn 36 around October, it’s a pretty reasonable question to ask.
Naturally, this speculation made me wonder: if Kariya’s career is over, would he be worthy of a Hall of Fame induction? My instinctive answer is “no” but I thought I’d ask PHT readers for their thoughts. Here are the poll results.
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While there are quite a few people (about 42.5 percent) who think Kariya deserves to be in the HHOF, 40 more readers came down on my side of the argument. That’s not to say that Paul Kariya didn’t have a good career, just that he didn’t accomplish enough to be considered one of the greatest players of all-time.
Now, keep in mind that Kariya isn’t officially done just yet. It’s far from impossible that he’ll decide to lace up his skates again if his concussion issues subside. We’ll just need to wait and see when it comes to retirement.
His career might be a few strides short of the Hall of Fame, but that’s not to be ashamed of. Good luck to Kariya as he fights through the side effects of one of sports’ scariest injuries.