Will a team ever have more HHOFers than the 1976 Canada Cup team?

[Big Phil]

I am going to do a list so far from what we have so far. The more recent years are going to have some projections as well since not everyone's career is done but as it stands right now the team with the most HHOFers is the 1976 Canada Cup team (no surprise) with 18. It may surprise others that Team NHL in the 1979 Challenge Cup has 20 HHOFers although they did have a slightly bigger roster than an average team. Here are the best numbers, the ones I left out from certain years mean there wasn't any chance of them competing. I added the Swedish team in 2006 which might end up with more than you think.

1976 Canadian team - 18 (best chance would be P. Mahovlich or Rick Martin getting in)
1981 Canadian team - 12 (several HHOFers cut, the only members of the team who could add to this would be Middleton or Liut)
1984 Canadian team - 12 (Middleton and Tonelli with the only shots)
1987 Canadian team - 12 (Claude Lemieux has the best chance)
1991 Canadian team - 11 (Fleury, Larmer and Desjardins with the best shot
1996 Canadian team - 11 (Fleury, Joseph, BrindAmour, C. Lemieux could add to it)
1996 U.S. team - 6 (Surprisingly low for the champs, Richter, Leclair, Tkachuk could add to it)
2002 Canadian team - 14 (Fleury, Joseph are the only possibilities)
2006 Swedish team - 4 (H. Sedin, D. Sedin, Zetterberg and Alfredsson all have good shots)
2010 Canadian team - 12 Brodeur, Crosby, Thornton, Doughty, Weber, Toews, Iginla, Pronger, Niedermayer, Getzlaf, Keith, Bergeron (M-A Fleury, Luongo, Perry, Marleau have anywhere from a decent to a longshot to add to it)
2014 Canadian team - 10 Crosby, Toews, Bergeron, Getzlaf, Doughty, Weber, Keith, Price, Tavares, St. Louis (Luongo, Subban, Marleau, Benn, Perry, Pietrangelo)
2016 Canadian team - 12 Crosby Toews, Bergeron, Stamkos, Tavares, Thornton, Getzlaf, Doughty, Weber, Burns, Price, Holtby (Giroux, Marchand, Perry, Pietrangelo)


I don't know if I see it. The best possible on any team that I can see is 16 at best. This is just assuming that Ryan O'Reilly or Matt Duchene don't have HHOF careers either, which isn't happening. Corey Crawford either. So I think if there was any team that had a good shot it was this one. What a team it was in 2016, too bad the NHL made the tournament a mockery that year. I don't know if anyone can eclipse that great 1976 team. Too many star players with most of them right in the middle of their careers. 2002 won't have any more than 16. Ryan Smyth isn't getting inducted or even Adam Foote for that matter. But that is the best I can see from any team. Maybe Canada in 2018 would have had a good selection or if they ever manage to figure out a way for a World Cup in 2020 or the Olympics in 2022 but that is way too hard to tell. Basically you are talking about a future team that has to have all but 5 guys not be future HHOFers. This is very hard to do as there will always be those role-type players to fill in that won't have HHOF careers.

Keep in mind, there is still a nice collection of stars on the 1976 team who aren't in. Here are the names. Chico Resch, Pete Mahovlich, Danny Gare, Rick Martin, Reggie Leach and Jimmy Watson. The first 5 were all playing like HHOFers at the time. Scary.

So can a team surpass this?

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[The Panther]

I can't see any team beating 1976. The thing is, the older teams will tend to have the "advantage" in that a higher proportion of stars from the past made the Hall of Fame than made it later or will make it today. That just gives a 1970s' era team a better chance.

Another question, though, is do international teams -- for short tournaments -- need a lot of Hall of Famers? It worked in '76, but it also worked out for some teams with far less of such players. A lot of coaches wanted some grinder/grit players to do the checking, and few of those are Hall of Fame players.

How many future Hall of Famers were on the Canada '72 team at the Summit Series?

 

[VMBM]

How many future Hall of Famers were on the Canada '72 team at the Summit Series?

13 (players who actually played in the series). Marcel Dionne and Bobby Orr were also on the roster, but did not play.

 

[Big Phil]

13 (players who actually played in the series). Marcel Dionne and Bobby Orr were also on the roster, but did not play.

To be fair, those were 35 players too. 13 doesn't sound like a whole lot coming from that team when you think of it. Obviously still a great team though.

 

[VMBM]

To be fair, those were 35 players too. 13 doesn't sound like a whole lot coming from that team when you think of it. Obviously still a great team though.

Sure, and some of the bigger stars like Perreault and Mikita played very little (Perreault was very young, Mikita past his prime).

EDIT: If you count also the players who didn't play, then the correct number is 15 out of 35.

 

[Voight]

1998 Team Canada had 13 HHOF'ers BTW, with Fleury/CuJo options to make it 15.

Say they get in and had Lemieux not been retired, you'd have 17. Pretty close to 1976.

 

[Big Phil]

1998 Team Canada had 13 HHOF'ers BTW, with Fleury/CuJo options to make it 15.

Say they get in and had Lemieux not been retired, you'd have 17. Pretty close to 1976.

Amazing how that is when you think of it because I don't know if there is a team we complain about on here more than that one. The problem was, too many players were past their prime on that team and were on the back nine of their careers. So it makes it shinier than it really is. Add BrindAmour as one of those guys who might get in someday and you could have 17. Although I don't put him in myself.

Sure, and some of the bigger stars like Perreault and Mikita played very little (Perreault was very young, Mikita past his prime).

Mikita I could see, he was 32, not ancient, but by 1972 he wasn't quite the same player. However, Perreault in his only two games he played had a goal and an assist. Both of the highlight reel variety and then they tell him he is going home. Just another example of how poorly this team was managed.

 

[reckoning]

I would give Team Canada '76 only 17 Hall of Famers. Gerry Cheevers shouldn't count because he didn't actually play in the series (he only dressed as a backup).

I was wondering if there was ever a single game where every player in the lineup was a Hall of Famer. The closest I could find was Team NHL from Game 2 of the '79 Challenge Cup. Out of the 18 players to play in that game, Barry Beck was the lone non-member.

 

[Big Phil]

I would give Team Canada '76 only 17 Hall of Famers. Gerry Cheevers shouldn't count because he didn't actually play in the series (he only dressed as a backup).

I was wondering if there was ever a single game where every player in the lineup was a Hall of Famer. The closest I could find was Team NHL from Game 2 of the '79 Challenge Cup. Out of the 18 players to play in that game, Barry Beck was the lone non-member.

Not bad. Yeah, the 1976 Canada Cup team doesn't even have that I don't think. There were only 5 in total that weren't HHOFers. P. Mahovlich, Leach, Martin, Gare and Watson. Resch too if you want to count him as a 3rd string goalie. Mahovlich played in every game, and Leach in 6 of them. Martin 4, Watson 2, Gare 1. So it would be close. You could probably find a game where there were just two of them playing.

 

[GMR]

The 1994 Team Canada would have had many. Too bad we never got to see that team.

 

[solidmotion]

the 2002 red wings will have 10, eventually:

yzerman
fedorov
hull
shanahan
hasek
lidstrom
robitaille
chelios
larionov
datsyuk

 

[Hanji]

Team NHL at the 1979 Challenge Cup surpasses team 1976 quite easily with 20 HOFers on the 26 registered player roster. Of those who saw game time, it’s 19 out of 24.
Those figures best the ‘76 team both in terms of number of HOFers and % of HOFers per roster.

And as previously mentioned, in game 2, every player on the ice but one is now in the HOF. That’s ridiculous if you stop and think about it.

 

[Big Phil]

the 2002 red wings will have 10, eventually:

yzerman
fedorov
hull
shanahan
hasek
lidstrom
robitaille
chelios
larionov
datsyuk

I believe if we are looking at an NHL team the 1973 Habs are the leader (at least among Cup winners) for HHOFers. They have 11. Plus Bowman as coach for 12. Strangely, like the 2002 Red Wings few of them were right at their peak. Shutt was a rookie. Robinson too. Lafleur was in his 2nd year. Guys like Henri Richard and Frank Mahovlich were getting older. Maybe Savard, Lapointe, Dryden and Lemaire are in their prime. Cournoyer too I guess.

I doubt that ever gets broken in the NHL.