Bettman, O’Ree, Brodeur make Hall
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, pioneering black player Willie O’Ree and Martin Brodeur, the league’s leader in wins among goaltenders, top the latest class for the Hockey Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday.
Bettman has been commissioner since 1993, during which time the NHL has expanded its footprint across North America and increased from 24 to 31 teams. During Bettman’s tenure, the league has gone from a $437 million business to one with almost $5 billion in revenue.
Along with Bettman and O’Ree in the builder category, forward Martin St. Louis, four-time gold-medal-winning Canadian women’s national team star Jayna Hefford and Russian Alexander Yakushev were part of the six-person class of 2018 that will be inducted Nov. 12 in Toronto.
O’Ree was the first black player in the NHL but he will be the third inducted to the Hall of Fame, joining Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr and Canadian women’s national team captain Angela James.
O’Ree made his NHL debut in 1958 as a call-up for the Boston Bruins. The winger put up four goals and 10 assists in 45 NHL games during the 1957-58 and 1960-61 seasons despite being 95 percent blind in his right eye.
The 46-year-old Brodeur was a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the New Jersey Devils who was elected in his first year of eligibility as the goalie with the most wins, shutouts and games played in NHL history.
St. Louis, a 5-foot-8 winger, put up 1,033 points in 1,134 regular-season games over 17 seasons, won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and an Olympic gold medal with Canada in 2014. He’s just the sixth undrafted player in league history with 1,000plus points.
Hefford won four Olympic gold medals and seven world championships, putting up 30 points in 26 Olympic games.
Yakushev became known to North American hockey fans during the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, with 11 points in eight games. He also won Olympic gold medals in 1972 and 1976. Sharks pursue Tavares: The Sharks, along with the Boston Bruins, met with center John Tavares and his agent in Los Angeles after the impending unrestricted free agent had meetings with the Maple Leafs and Islanders on Monday.
Tampa Bay and Dallas are scheduled to meet with Tavares and agent Pat Brisson on Wednesday and it’s still possible that other teams may convince Tavares they should get in on the bidding as well. The free agent market opens on Sunday after this five-day negotiating window leading up to it.
Only the Islanders can offer Tavares, completing a six-year, $33 million deal, an eight-year contract, with the rest of the NHL limited to a maximum of seven seasons.
The bidding is expected to start at $11 million per season. The intense competition for Tavares, who could become the highest-profile unrestricted free agent in NHL history, may push that figure closer to $12 million.
The Islanders offer familiarity and the likelihood of the most lucrative deal. According to CapFriendly.com, the Islanders, at $32.8 million, have the most salary cap space of the 31 teams after the salary cap for 2018-19 was set at $79.5 million.
The Sharks, though, are widely considered the Islanders’ strongest competition for Tavares. The Sharks offer a veteran roster and a culture of success that Tavares has publicly craved and San Jose is not a major media market, which likely appeals to the very private Tavares.
They have $18.9 million in cap space and have missed the playoffs just once since 2003, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2016.
Associated Press
Newsday
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