Now that the 2013 class -- Chris Chelios, Scott Niedermayer, Brendan Shanahan, Geraldine Heaney and Fred Shero -- has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, let’s take a look ahead to next year’s class and guess who’ll be enshrined.
(Note: for simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus on the four maximum spots reserved for ex-NHLers here. But feel free to write in female players and builders in the comments section.)
First-time eligible in ’14
Peter Forsberg, Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano, Mark Recchi, Doug Weight, Adam Foote
‘13 eligible players
Rob Blake, Rod Brind’Amour, Bill Guerin, Paul Kariya, Markus Naslund, Keith Tkachuk
Others
Eric Lindros, Phil Housley, Dave Andreychuk, Alex Mogilny, Jeremy Roenick, Claude Lemieux
For what it’s worth, my selections would be Hasek (the lockiest lock that ever locked), Forsberg, Modano and Recchi. I’m doing this while consciously ignoring my not-gonna-happen-but-I-want-'em-to longshot picks: Claude Lemieux (four Stanley Cups with three different teams) and Rod “The Bod” Brind’Amour, who scored 1,184 points, played 1,484 games, won a Stanley Cup in 2006 when he captained the Hurricanes captured a pair of Selkes.
Also, his nickname was The Bod.
[polldaddy poll=7553757]
UPDATE: Forgot to switch the settings for multiple votes (four) rather than singular ones. That’s been changed. Apologies for the error.
Related: Chelios, Niedermayer, Shanahan highlight ’13 Hall of Fame induction ceremony