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Ease of Entry By Michael Farber Issue date: July 3, 2000
The Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't have an open-door policy exactly, but it's still easier to get into than a Springsteen show. While the Baseball Hall of Fame has inducted 202 players, the hockey hall in Toronto has waved 218 through its door, even though the NHL has historically had fewer teams -- six between 1942 and '67 -- and smaller rosters. The hockey hall's latest honorees are longtime Blackhawks center Denis Savard and 502-goal scorer Joe Mullen, who played for four NHL teams. Mullen in particular is the kind of player the hockey shrine can't seem to resist. The right wing was a first-rate sniper but hardly a dominant force, a member of three Stanley Cup-winning teams but the mainstay of none, a first-team All-Star and a 50-goal scorer only once in his 17 NHL seasons. The fact that Mullen is an American and that only five previous Hall of Famers hailed from the U.S. might have carried more weight than even his exemplary work on the Calgary power play in the Flames' championship season of 1988-89. In choosing him, the 15 members of the selection committee -- three others were absent from the June 15 meeting at which the balloting was conducted -- passed over eminently deserving Dale Hawerchuk, a six-time 100-point man and a cornerstone center for Winnipeg who retired three years ago as the NHL's 10th-leading career scorer, with 1,409 points. Hockey is awfully bighearted by nature -- the NHL hands out more feel-good, end-of-the-year awards than a grammar school -- but if its Hall of Fame is to continue to have any prestige, the selection committee, which includes former players, current and former hockey executives and five media members, will have to turn ornery. There will be some tough decisions in the coming years, when the offensive explosion of the 1980s must be put in historical context. Among players who'll soon be up for consideration are Dave Andreychuk (552 goals), Doug Gilmour (1,305 points), Phil Housley (1,130 points) and Igor Larionov (a superb center whose best years were in the former Soviet Union), not to mention goalies Grant Fuhr (403 wins, five Stanley Cups), Tom Barrasso (353 wins, two Cups), Andy Moog (372 wins, three Cups) and Mike Vernon (371 wins, two Cups). The 500-goal and 300-win standards for virtually automatic admission should be tightened. Mullen's election suggests that the committee lacks the stomach to do that. Issue date: July 3, 2000
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