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Brendan Shanahan credits time with Red Wings

brendanshanahangetty

Fair or not, Hockey Hall of Fame voters value players who won Stanley Cups in their hockey careers.

Brendan Shanahan brought plenty to the table with eight All-Star appearances, 656 goals and 1,354 points in his distinguished career, but he acknowledged that winning three championships with the Detroit Red Wings was a big difference-maker, as NHL.com reports.

“It was just the right fit,” Shanahan said. “They had not won the Cup in several decades. They had been close. At the time that’s all I wanted to do. I think you mature a bit as a player, you want to get yourself established, get yourself to feel like you belong, and then all of a sudden you start realizing how hard it is and how difficult it is to win a Cup and you become obsessed with it. I was lucky at that point in my career to join a team that was obsessed with it and a group of guys that were also obsessed with it, and were also talented enough to be a legitimate contender. I know I wouldn’t be on this call today if it weren’t for my time in Detroit.”

That point is debatable (managing to score 600+ goals and more than 1,000 points while putting up a hearty 2,489 PIM will turn plenty of heads), but perhaps his high-level successes expedited the process.