Active players who are locks for the Hall of Fame

[Kshahdoo]

Here's my list of active players whose career numbers and accomplishments during their careers so far make them locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

My main criteria is if they retired today, they would make the hall after the 3 year waiting period.

Patrice Bergeron
Patrick Kane
Connor McDavid
Drew Doughty
Jonathan Quick
Marc-Andre Fleury
Sidney Crosby
Evgeni Malkin
Kris Letang
Steven Stamkos
Victor Hedman
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Joe Pavelski
Brent Burns
Alex Pietrangelo
Alex Ovechkin
Nicklas Backstrom

Some others are close and very probable, like Mackinnon, Matthews, Draisaitl, but don't yet have enough years of sustained high level performance to be in the lock category.

Who would you add or subtract as locks from this list?

Do my eyes serve me wrong or you don't actually have Kucherov on your list?

 

[Salva Mea]

EK and anze

 

[Voight]

Josi will get in. Very rare for Norris winners not to and he could still very well win a 2nd one.

Unlike others on here I think Piets will make it. He had a couple of elite seasons where he was among the best defensemen in the league, he still has time to pile on some more and was one of the main guys on the 2019 Blues team. Throw in some international success with Canada and theres a very good chance he will get in.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

I understand the longevity argument though would say Matthews basically locked his place last year.

 

[GrumpyKoala]

Carey Price

He said active players...

 

[Midnight Judges]

And he's been the better player for most of their careers. Don't forget that one.

Yeah sure except he hasn't.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

I think he's overrated, so I'm obligated to ask if Letang's team awards are enough to overcome his lack of individual awards?

Something something Hall of Very Good

 

[BoltSTH]

For the Bolts:
Hedman - Lock
Stamkos - Lock
Kucherov - Good chance, lock soon
Vasilevskiy - Well on on his way,

 

[North Cole]

I think I'd add Kucherov, Matthews and Drai. You win Harts, you go into the HOF. There's only like 3 eligible Hart winners not in and 2 are goalies. I guess they don't have the total points, but they do have the trophies and if we assume the retirement is due to injury, then I think they get in. They might not be first ballot which seems to disqualify them from your list?

IDK if everyone on your list is a first ballot, there's a difference between being a lock for the HOF and being a first ballot. You could look at someone and reasonably expect them to be a lock to make it eventually, even if they don't have the resume to go in day 1. Vasi and MAF would be interesting cases because its really hard for goalies to get in period, let alone day 1 of eligibility.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

I think I'd add Kucherov, Matthews and Drai. You win Harts, you go into the HOF. There's only like 3 eligible Hart winners not in and 2 are goalies. I guess they don't have the total points, but they do have the trophies and if we assume the retirement is due to injury, then I think they get in. They might not be first ballot which seems to disqualify them from your list?

IDK if everyone on your list is a first ballot, there's a difference between being a lock for the HOF and being a first ballot. You could look at someone and reasonable expect them to be a lock to make it eventually, even if they don't have the resume to go in day 1. Vasi and MAF would be interesting cases because its really hard for goalies to get in period, let alone day 1 of eligibility.

You'd have to add Taylor Hall with that criteria

 

[WhereAreTheCookies]

You'd have to add Taylor Hall with that criteria

Along with Corey Perry and Jose Theodore.

 

[Nate070]

I think he's overrated, so I'm obligated to ask if Letang's team awards are enough to overcome his lack of individual awards?

Something something Hall of Very Good

Wasn´t he injured during the 2017 run?

 

[North Cole]

You'd have to add Taylor Hall with that criteria

Don't mind doing that really, I honestly don't think its a stretch to assume he makes it in.

It will be interesting to watch the current crop of players because there will likely have to be some kind of eligibility shift since we haven't been at the big name international tournaments for most of their primes. They don't have 1-2 gold medals to pump their resume up so it really stands out for a guy like Hall who likely would have some kind of medal or two since he would have fairly easily made team Canada in his prime. Instead there is this void where he has virtually no international success and has played on junk teams with no playoff hopes.

He might not be a lock today similar to Kucherov/Drai/Matthews because he doesn't have 1000 points and 1000 games or those other compiler milestones, but he pretty easily gets there. Would he make it in if he up and LTIRetired today? Zero % chance its first ballot, but eligibility is a long time, so yes I think he does make it in.

Goalies have a very strange criteria such that even the dudes with Harts are not in, and the other skater was a guy who won his in 1941 during WW2, which is a bit of a bigger asterisks than "Hall won because McDavid missed the playoffs" or whatever the narrative was.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Crosby should be #1 on your list.

It will take a life altering situation to keep Matthews from making it.

I don’t think his list was in any particular order.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Don't mind doing that really, I honestly don't think its a stretch to assume he makes it in.

It will be interesting to watch the current crop of players because there will likely have to be some kind of eligibility shift since we haven't been at the big name international tournaments for most of their primes. They don't have 1-2 gold medals to pump their resume up so it really stands out for a guy like Hall who likely would have some kind of medal or two since he would have fairly easily made team Canada in his prime. Instead there is this void where he has virtually no international success and has played on junk teams with no playoff hopes.

He might not be a lock today similar to Kucherov/Drai/Matthews because he doesn't have 1000 points and 1000 games or those other compiler milestones, but he pretty easily gets there. Would he make it in if he up and LTIRetired today? Zero % chance its first ballot, but eligibility is a long time, so yes I think he does make it in.

Goalies have a very strange criteria such that even the dudes with Harts are not in, and the other skater was a guy who won his in 1941 during WW2, which is a bit of a bigger asterisks than "Hall won because McDavid missed the playoffs" or whatever the narrative was.

I think he's a pretty big stretch to make it, his Hart year seems like an outlier on his career.
It seems likely he'll fall short of 1000, he needs to get there or win a Stanley Cup to even start getting mentioned as a possibility

 

[joestevens29]

If McDavid really retires today are they letting him into the hall of fame?

 

[Dust]

If McDavid really retires today are they letting him into the hall of fame?

He would easily get in.

Also this will be an unpopular opinion but as of right now Mackinnon isn't getting in. He needs some personal hardware and to continue to be a PPG+ player for quite some time. Calder and Byng aren't enough.

 

[North Cole]

I think he's a pretty big stretch to make it, his Hart year seems like an outlier on his career.
It seems likely he'll fall short of 1000, he needs to get there or win a Stanley Cup to even start getting mentioned as a possibility

50-60 points gets him to 1000 in 6-7 years and he's only 30, so I don't think its that likely he will fall short, especially if scoring stays up.

Yeah, it is an outlier but he certainly picked the right trophy to hit in his outlier season. At the end of the day, the media liked the fact that he pulled his team into the playoffs and regardless of how HF feels about the validity of the Hart itself, in 20 years people will see McDavid and Mack going in, then see Hall took a hart off those guys.

I think if he gets to the milestones in the next decade, theres enough of a story there that he gets in. I just don't see him being the first Hart winning forward to be on the outside of the HOF 30 years from now, but only time will tell.

If McDavid really retires today are they letting him into the hall of fame?

100%. Unanimously.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

gonna go out on a limb and say Crosby is a lock

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

If they retired today:
Bergeron
Chara
Crosby
Doughty
Getzlaf
Hedman
Kane
Karlsson
Keith
Kopitar
Kucherov
Malkin
McDavid
Ovechkin
Price
Stamkos
Thornton
Toews
Weber

Almost there:
Draisaitl
MacKinnon
Makar
Marchand
Matthews
Vasilevskiy

Possibly:
Backstrom
Fleury
Giroux
Josi
Letang
Suter

Agree on Chara, Keith and Thornton.

Getzlaf is a no for me. Zero individual awards and not even a single season leading the NHL in any meaningful metric. Very good player, just not quite HHoF worthy.

 

[rogking65]

Umm
Jonathan Toews?
3 Stanley Cups
2 Olympic Gold Medals
1 World Jr Gold Medal
1 Conn Smyth trophy
1 Selke award
1 Messier award
2nd team allstar
All rookie team
1000+ NHL games

very underwhelming resume. Take out team accomplishments and not much left. 2nd team allstar and 1000 games ..WOW..... Only scored over 70 points twice in 14 yrs. If someone looked at his career without knowing who the player is they would say no to HOF. Only 852 career points and a lot of undeserved hype

 

[Stealth JD]

very underwhelming resume. Take out team accomplishments and not much left. 2nd team allstar and 1000 games ..WOW..... Only scored over 70 points twice in 14 yrs. If someone looked at his career without knowing who the player is they would say no to HOF. Only 852 career points and a lot of undeserved hype

If there are more than 100 players in the HHOF, Toews has to go in, since he’s a top-100 player of all-time!

 

[TropicOfNoReturn]

Here's my list of active players whose career numbers and accomplishments during their careers so far make them locks for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

My main criteria is if they retired today, they would make the hall after the 3 year waiting period.

Patrice Bergeron
Patrick Kane
Connor McDavid
Drew Doughty
Jonathan Quick
Marc-Andre Fleury
Sidney Crosby
Evgeni Malkin
Kris Letang
Steven Stamkos
Victor Hedman
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Joe Pavelski
Brent Burns
Alex Pietrangelo
Alex Ovechkin
Nicklas Backstrom

Some others are close and very probable, like Mackinnon, Matthews, Draisaitl, but don't yet have enough years of sustained high level performance to be in the lock category.

Who would you add or subtract as locks from this list?

Good list.
Omissions that came to mind right away for me are:
Nikita Kucherov
Jonathan Toews
Anze Kopitar
Carey Price (if still considered active)
Zdeno Chara (hasn't retired)
Joe Thornton (hasn't retired)

I was going to say Duncan Keith as well, but then remembered he did in fact retire. He's obviously a lock though. Shew Weber as well of course...not actually retired I don't think, but we all know he's done.

Borderline adds:
Brad Marchand
Erik Karlsson
Roman Josi

I'm not so sure about Pavelski or Burns on your list. I could see the case being made...but one could argue against.

 

[Hockeyholic]

No Tavares or Benn?

 

[FrozenJagrt]

I understand the longevity argument though would say Matthews basically locked his place last year.

We certainly couldn't say he's a one hit wonder. Outside of just this past season, he's been an elite goal scorer his entire career with 4 top five finishes, 3 top ten point finishes. He's got the Calder, an additional Rocket and a couple post season All Star selections. Was a finalist for the Hart and Lindsay in the 2021 season.

So he's got the hardware, the nominations. Holds some individual records. Yet for some reason I feel like he needs just a tiny bit more in his career to lock it up. A Cup would make it a no brainer.