5 NHL HOF inductees named

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Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Brian Leetch were named to the Hall as players Tuesday and longtime New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello was accepted in the builder category.

While the credentials of some inductees have been questioned in recent years, this is an all-star group comparable to the best ever. And it comes only two years after the memorable 2007 induction of greats Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Scott Stevens and Al MacInnis.

A maximum of four players can go into the Hall each year, and first-year eligible players not chosen by the 18-member selection committee include Alexander Mogilny, who had 1,032 points in 990 career NHL games, and Dave Andreychuk, who scored 640 goals over 23 seasons.

Still waiting from past years are stars like Doug Gilmour, Pavel Bure, Dino Ciccarelli and Phil Housley.

Players must be retired for three years to enter the Hall of Fame unless they receive a special exemption. The official induction ceremony will be held Nov. 9 in Toronto.

All four players were offensive engines for their teams, who entered the NHL in the early-to-mid 1980s in a era of firewagon hockey, survived the clutch-and-grab years of the late 1990s and early 2000s and stayed on one year after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season.

Yzerman is the sixth-leading scorer in NHL history with 1,755 points in 1,514 games. The longtime Red Wings captain led the team to three Stanley Cups and was a member of Canada's gold medal winning Olympic team in 2002.

Hull was one of the great pure goal-scorers of his era.

He scored 86 goals and was named the league's most valuable player in 1991. He ended his career with 741 goals and 1,391 points in 1,269 games. He and 1960s great Bobby Hull are the only father-son combination with 600 goals and 1,000 career NHL points each.

Robitaille won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 1987 and went on to amass 1,394 points in 1,431 games, which ranks 10th among all-time scorers. The Montreal native had eight 40-goal seasons and scored 63 goals in 1992-93 with the Los Angeles Kings.

Leetch was one of the top defencemen of his era with 1,028 points in 1,205 games. He won a Calder Trophy in 1988 and became the first U.S.-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the playoffs after leading the New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1994, ending a 54-year Cup drought for the Blueshirts.

The Devils have won three Stanley Cups under Lamoriello, who has been involved in the game for more than 40 years at both the college and pro levels.

No question who goes in this year. It's unfortunate for someone like Douggy Gilmour that he hasn't gotten in yet, but this was a hard class to crack. He'll make it in soon enough IMO.

I just hope Turgeon will make it next year, seeing as this will be the first year where he's eligible to enter the HOF.

He won't because he sucks!!!

Do you know who's eligible next year? With a maximum of 4 inductees, I can see Turgeon making it unless there's another strong class.

Turgeon doesn't suck at all. He's a great player.

I hope he is inducted next year, he has his chance.