Once again the Hockey Hall of Fame voting committee has made their call and once again they’ve done a good job electing a group of players for the 2011 Hall of Fame class. There’s no way to take umbrage with any of Ed Belfour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, or Mark Howe. They’re all outstanding players worthy of the Hall and for one player it’s been an excruciating wait to have his name called.
For Mark Howe it’s taken him 16 years to be elected to the Hall of Fame and while for some that might lead to an argument over whether or not he was actually worthy of the honor, in his situation, we’ll take it to mean something else. It’s time for the Hall of Fame to relax their limits on how many players to honor in a given year.
Any given year for the elections a maximum of four players can be voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. These limits were put in place when the NHL was much smaller than it is now and the number of players playing hockey around the world were vastly smaller. With the number of great and immensely talented players that come through the NHL now and with so many of them with stellar cases for the Hockey Hall of Fame the backlog of players that deserve to be in the Hall of Fame that will have to sweat things out year to year is only going to grow.
After taking a look at some of the bigger snubs were after this year’s round of elections while taking a look ahead to next year, no matter what we’re going to see some guys being left out. For some of the guys that have been waiting things out, the wait might get a lot longer. For those coming up that miss out, they too could find themselves in the same position as Howe has being wrongly left out in the cold. Instead of keeping the number limited to the archaic four, the Hall of Fame should as well and open it up so as many as eight could be elected in a single year. After all, the NHL and other leagues around the world and throughout North America have expanded to such great numbers, it’s only right that the Hall does as well.
Some of you will be critical of this saying that it’ll make the Hall of Fame into the “Hall of Decent Players.” Not so much. If nothing else, the Hall of Fame voting committee has shown their ability to restrain themselves some years and not electing their full number of those that could be elected. Not every year ends with a full complement of those eligible amongst players, builders, women, and officials.
For instance in 2010, Dino Ciccarelli was the only player elected. In 2008, just two players were elected in Glenn Anderson and Igor Larionov. Same in 2005 when just Cam Neely and Valeri Kharlamov were elected. Giving the voters the ample leeway to vote freely rather than hem and haw over numerous qualified players would at least open the doors to the hall that much wider for everyone that deserves to be in there to make it in there when they should.
For players like Dave Andreychuk (he of 640 goals), Adam Oates (16th all-time in points, one spot ahead of Doug Gilmour), Pavel Bure (a dynamic career cut short by injury) and numerous others, their calls to the Hall of Fame have yet to be made and there’s no good reason why. With the likes of Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Mats Sundin, and Curtis Joseph eligible for the first time next year the list will only grow longer one way or another.
Keeping these players out of the Hall of Fame is silly and does them a disservice. No one should have to sweat things out as long as Mark Howe did after having a Hall of Fame career. If the Hockey Hall of Fame wants to properly honor its players, letting more of them in when they’re eligible and approved to enter would be the right way to do it.