In his speech Andreychuk said he was “humbled and honored” to be inducted, and that he had a lot of help around him. In Tampa, that help came in players like Richards, St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier,
Dan Boyle and
Nikolai Khabibulin.
They were “good players who just needed to be pushed in the right direction.” And push he did. Brad Richards, who was 21 years old and roomed with him at Tortorella’s direction, said that the advice that Andreychuk dispensed was “Endless. When things got a little shaky we knew we could ask Dave what was going on.”
Andreychuk might think of himself as just a “little boy from Hamilton” who was “slow as molasses, but somehow got it done” (in Tortorella’s words)