Does the Hall of Fame still hold significance to you?

[1989]

Not trying to be incendiary here for those passionate, but the thread title says most of what I want to discuss.

• Have you been there? Was it worth it?
• Do you believe the Hall of Fame's qualifications regarding player entry holds up?
  • If yes, do you think it will continue to hold up?
• Does it still have a lot of value in the modern age for everyone?
• Who are the glaring omissions or entries which weaken the quality of the Hall?
  • Which future players do you anticipate might get subbed?

I admit I've never been. If I do go, it would only be as part of another trip through the area and not a specific pilgrimage.

Not all circumstances are created equal for entry (goalies, defensive defencemen vs generational centre's resumes) and some of the greats will never get in or be acknowledged and it will go on this way forever, but that's not even a complete argument for "stinginess".
Conversely if qualifications become more open, it may enter the "Hall of Very Good" status.

I don't know if it holds a lot of value now, or whether it's just a institution for the sake of existing.
Not expecting too many in-depth answers per my questions but I am very curious to hear people's thoughts, especially those who have gone multiple times across different eras of hockey.

Click to read more...

 

[norrisnick]

I mean, it's not the Hall of Great to begin with.

 

[Voight]

When they started inducting guys like Kevin Lowe and Mike Vernon, it took a hit for me.

Even inducting a guy like Carbonneau while leaving out Brind'Amour and Lehtinen.

Not to mention waiting forever to induct Pat Burns and Pat Quinn, both guys only got the honour after they died which is sad.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

It’s the Mogilny thing for me. No, the ol’ boys club has lost significance.

 

[McVespa99]

yes

 

[Mrfenn92]

Will always appreciate the history of the hall especially with the earlier players that I never saw. But like any hall of fame it tends to get “watered” down a bit.

 

[NVious]

Won't be complete until the final GOAT is in

 

[BillyOcean]

One of the many straws that broke the camels back will be when a guy like Patrick marleau makes it in.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

If you’ve gone once….you’re good.

I went in like 2013. It was fun. The trophy room where they have like the Art Ross, Conn Smythe, etc. is the best part.

Whrn I went they had the Crosby “Golden Goal” exhibit which was sweet to see up close.

 

[kingsholygrail]

It's one of my considerations for a test-run vacation out of the country for the first time.

As far as the process and all that, it's still a group of dudes deciding who gets in and who doesn't on a loose set of unspoken criteria. I still think goalies are underrepresented and D-men over-represented.

 

[DearDiary]

Won't be complete until the final GOAT is in

The GOAT 5 round-table in 5 years

 

[Huokaus]

When I started watching hockey, I held most of the players in the Hall of Fame in some sort of special reverence even though I hadn't seen them play. Like, they must be legends that truly were special players in some way, and there must be a good reason why they should be remembered in hockey history, right? Now that players I've watched play have been getting in, in many cases I've thought like "that's it? that's the bar? I didn't get any legendary vibes from this guy or his career..."

 

[Montreal Shadow]

One of the many straws that broke the camels back will be when a guy like Patrick marleau makes it in.

The one that did it for me was Dick Duff.

 

[The Macho King]

HHOF is a joke, but it's still nice when your guy gets in. But like... Housley, Carbonneau, Duff, Lowe... the Hall has always had pretty low standards relative to other sports, but it's gotten worse.

The main issue aside from that is with Soviet/Iron Curtain players, though. You get guys like Yakushev in, but are missing out on a ton of much more worthy players, all because Yakushev had one good series against Canada.

That all being said - the process sucks with two rounds of voting - it basically guarantees a full compliment a year. I much prefer the baseball hall of fame method where everyone submits a ballot, and if a player doesn't make the threshold they don't get in, and if they don't get in after X number of years, they're off the ballot.

 

[Mosby]

No. Board members can't even fill out their ballot correctly.

If you list Ovi as a RW rather than a LW, you should have your board seat automatically revoked.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Every time I've been there, I've really enjoyed it.

I haven't gone in a long time, though. Maybe I'll make a visit this summer.

The time was in 2007 when I was in my early 20s...

 

[Rec T]

Still?

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

No disrespect but the HOF is pretty irrelevant to fans , I'm sure its a big deal to the players

 

[Steven Toast]

• Have you been there? Was it worth it?
• Do you believe the Hall of Fame's qualifications regarding player entry holds up?
  • If yes, do you think it will continue to hold up?
• Does it still have a lot of value in the modern age for everyone?

- Its a very interesting place to visit if you are ever in Toronto. I recommend any hockey fan goes. I wouldn't go to Toronto just to see the HHOF, but if one happens to be in Toronto they should take a few hours to see it.

- I think the bar to entry is pretty low, but again that doesn't lessen the experience of going to the hall. I wasn't focused on Andreychuk being a member while looking at Richards old gear.

 

[GlitchMarner]

As for the question of quality in terms of inductees:

I think that perhaps certain forwards who played during a high scoring era and were essentially good first line forwards but not franchise or superstar players were inducted because their careers were not evaluated properly.

Cross-era comparisons, evaluations and adjustments can be difficult. If you ever check out the History of Hockey board, we debate constantly about how to best compare players across eras. It can be tricky in some ways...

But it can be done better than the HHOF induction commit has done it at times.


In a given era, you can expect one transcendent talent or two.

Then you have your franchise players and guys who may not quite be franchise players but are superstar level players that casual fans have heard of and that people go to see and then you have your good first liners who may have one year or two of being big stars in the League.

When players from the last category are mistaken for franchise or superstar level players due to statistics that look really good in comparison to stats from lower-scoring eras, then you get inductees who were very good players but were never among the truly elite (or were only at the level for a season or two).

From recent times we have these players:

Generational: McDavid, Crosby, arguably Ovechkin.

Franchise players: Malkin, MacKinnon, Matthews, Kucherov, Kane, Barkov

Superstars: Rantanen, Kaprizov, Pastrnak, Getzlaf, Modano, Kopitar, Zetterberg, Sundin

Good first liners: Parise, Perry, Marleau, Tanguay, Hall, Voracek, Pacioretty


Players like Joe Mullen, Dino Ciccarelli, Dave Andreychuk and probably Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Gartner (who are all in the Hall of Fame) were actually more in the class of players like Perry and Hall than in the superstar class but were inducted because of statistics that look like superstar numbers in eras like the Dead Puck Era and the 2010 to 2017 low-scoring era (that peaked in 2015 when an 87 point player won the Art Ross). Because of these inductees, people can now make arguments that players like Perry, Marleau and perhaps Hall wouldn't be too out of place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.


This isn't to suggest that 1970s/1980s "compiler" types are the only controversial selections. The HHOF includes guys like Dick Duff from older eras, defensemen like Housley and defensive specialists like Carbonneau and Gainey as well.

No disrespect but the HOF is pretty irrelevant to fans , I'm sure its a big deal to the players

I don't know about that. There are threads asking if certain players should or will be inducted constantly.

 

[Nocashstyle]

It’s not that serious. Some act like Cam Janssen is in there.

It’s basically a memorial of hockey history. If it was just like Howe, Orr, Gretzky, and Lemieux, how goddamn boring would that get?

 

[ricky0034]

sure, I don't really care about it all that much but it's not a total joke to me like the Baseball one has become either where it's missing some of the sports best players just because

i'd be interested in visiting it someday but only if I was nearby I wouldn't go out of my way to do so

 

[mr figgles]

There’s like 1.5 million registered hockey players in the world, and only a handful of them will get in. It’s fine. Until, Patrick Marleau gets in, then it’s time to burn it to the ground and start over.

 

[MikeK]

Significance? No. I look at it more like the Hall of Very Good these days. They've added players who have no business being there while omitting those who clearly do. The standard has been lowered in my book.

Too each their own. There are fans out there who eat and drink hockey and won't ever see or hear any negativity towards their game and anything associated with it. I personally think the HHoF has been watered down but others will see it as the holy grail.

 

[wetcoast]

One of the many straws that broke the camels back will be when a guy like Patrick marleau makes it in.

Which I doubt happens but even if it does why are people letting the absence of perfection standing in the way of a good experience?