The Hockey Corridor of Fame introduced its Class of 2025, which incorporates first-year eligible gamers Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, and the tip of a prolonged look ahead to former NHL star Alexander Mogilny.
The Corridor of Fame introduced that these 4 can be joined by gold medal-winning ladies’s gamers Jennifer Botterill of Canada and Brianna Decker of the U.S. The Corridor will induct two Builders as effectively in former Boston College coach Jack Parker and Daniele Sauvageau, at the moment the final supervisor for the Montreal Victoire of the Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League. She’s the primary lady ever to be inducted by the Hockey Corridor of Fame as a Builder.
The 18-member Hockey Corridor of Fame choice committee is comprised of former males’s and girls’s gamers, group executives and chosen long-time journalists. They chose the utmost variety of entrants amongst males (4), ladies (2) and builders (2). Gamers have to be inactive for 3 full seasons.
Chara was one of the crucial distinctive defensemen in hockey historical past. He was listed at 6-foot-9, reaching 7-feet tall on skates, and was the tallest participant in NHL historical past. He performed for the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins and briefly with the Washington Capitals throughout his 24-year NHL profession. Chara is the all-time chief in video games performed by a defenseman with 1,680, scoring 680 factors throughout that span.
Chara captained the Bruins from 2006-2020, main them to the Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and two extra appearances within the Last in 2013 and 2019. He was a pressure in his personal zone, with a substantial wingspan and physicality. Chara received the Norris Trophy with Boston because the NHL’s finest defenseman in 2008-09 and was a six-time finalist for the award.
He was well-known for having one of the crucial highly effective slap-shots in NHL historical past, successful the Hardest Shot competitors on the All-Star Sport in 5 straight seasons — together with an NHL file 108.8 mph in 2012.
Internationally, the Slovakian defenseman received silver twice on the IIHF world championships (2000 and 2012) and in addition received silver with Crew Europe on the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
“Throughout his distinctive 24-year profession, Zdeno put forth an unparalleled mixture of measurement, power, and talent every time he took the ice. He saved opponents on discover together with his commanding physicality and set the tone for his teammates with a stout defensive acumen, all whereas having the facility at any given time to unleash one of many hardest photographs ever recorded,” mentioned Boston Bruins president Cam Neely, himself a Corridor of Famer.
“His legendary management qualities have been additionally regularly on show, significantly when it got here to his famend off-ice conditioning which set a typical for all our gamers to comply with,” Neely mentioned. “To place it merely, Zdeno’s ability set stands among the many most unusual within the century-plus historical past of the Nationwide Hockey League, making him enormously worthy of enshrinement into the Hockey Corridor of Fame the place he can be remembered perpetually as one of many perfect to play our sport.”
Thornton was a dominant offensive participant throughout his 24-year NHL profession. He is 14th all-time in factors (1,539), one among 16 NHL gamers to cross the 1,500-point mark. The person they known as “Jumbo” was top-of-the-line passers in NHL historical past with 1,109 assists, seventh all-time and fifth amongst forwards. His 1,714 common season video games performed are sixth all-time. Thornton win the Artwork Ross Trophy because the NHL’s scoring chief in 2005-06, the identical season he received the Hart Trophy for league MVP.
Thornton spent 15 seasons with the San Jose Sharks, with whom he made his solely look within the Stanley Cup Last in 2016. He spent his first 8 seasons with the Boston Bruins, who drafted him first total in 1997. Thornton spent his final two seasons taking part in for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. Thornton received Olympic gold in 2010 for Canada and win World Cup of Hockey gold in 2004 and 2016. He additionally received a gold medal for Canada on the 1997 world junior championships.
Keith was a foundational participant for the Chicago Blackhawks’ dynastic period, wherein they received the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. Keith had 91 factors in 151 playoff video games — the second most factors of any defenseman within the postseason throughout his 17-season carer — averaging 27:07 in ice time. He received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2015.
Keith received the Norris Trophy because the league’s finest defenseman in 2010 and 2014. He had 646 factors in 1,256 regular-season video games, the fourth-most factors and second-most video games performed amongst defensemen throughout his profession. He received Olympic gold twice for Canada in 2010 and 2014.
Whereas that trio obtained the decision of their first yr of eligibility, Mogilny will lastly be inducted after 17 years of ready. His absence from the Corridor, regardless of his place in hockey historical past, was some extent of shock for a lot of followers and media during the last a number of years.
He is a Triple Gold Membership member, having received the Stanley Cup in 2000 with the New Jersey Devils, 1988 Olympic gold and the 1989 IIHF World Championship with the Soviet Union. It was after these world championships in Sweden that Mogilny turned the primary Soviet participant to defect to North America in 1989, making him one of the crucial essential names within the historical past of hockey.
Mogilny is thirty fifth amongst inactive NHL gamers in points-per-game common (1.042), and practically everybody forward of him on that checklist is within the Corridor of Fame. He is 59th all-time in objectives scored (473) and 58th in adjusted objectives (480), which ties him with Corridor of Famer Man Lafleur. He is thirty eighth all-time in goals-per-game common (0.478). All of that was achieved whereas he performed nearly all of his video games within the defensive entice period, the place he nonetheless managed to thrive as an offensive famous person.
Botterill was in her eleventh yr of eligibility. The ahead helped Crew Canada win Olympic gold in 2002, 2006 and 2010 and 5 IIHF World Championships, capturing MVP in that match twice. Nevertheless it was her dominance within the NCAA that units her aside. Enjoying with Harvard, she amassed 319 factors in 113 video games, scoring no less than some extent in all however one among her faculty video games. She was the primary participant to win the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award twice. Botterill additionally had 155 factors in 78 Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League video games.
Decker, a ahead, was a member of six gold-medal successful groups on the IIHF world championships for the U.S. She received Olympic gold in 2018 for Crew USA. Decker received the 2012 Patty Kazmaier Award whereas taking part in for the College of Wisconsin. She additionally performed within the Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League and the Nationwide Ladies’s Hockey League, successful league MVP and Isobel Cup Playoffs Most Worthwhile Participant in 2016 with Boston.
Parker coached the Terriers for 40 seasons, successful three nationwide championships, six Hockey East tournaments and three coach of the yr awards. He holds the file for many NCAA hockey wins at one faculty (897) and most Frozen 4 appearances (13), amongst others.
Sauvageau was a standard-bearer for ladies’s coaches in Canada. She led the Canadian ladies to their first Olympic gold in 2002. In 1999-2000, she turned an assistant coach for the Montreal Rocket of the QMJHL, the primary lady to teach in that Canadian junior league.
Among the many gamers nonetheless ready for his or her Corridor of Fame name are first-time eligible NHL stars like goaltender Carey Worth and heart Ryan Getzlaf, in addition to holdovers like present Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour, former Detroit Pink Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg, former San Jose Sharks heart Patrick Marleau, New Jersey Devils wingers Patrik Elias and Ilya Kovalchuk, and Crew USA legends Julie Chu and Meghan Duggan.
First-year eligible gamers in 2026 embrace former Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, thought-about the very best defensive heart in NHL historical past, and Phil Kessel, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with Pittsburgh and Vegas.
