Hockey Hall of Fame adds seven new members

Turgeon spoke beautifully of his wife Elisabeth, whom they share four children and two grandchildren through 30 years of marriage. The two first met each other when they were 12 years old.

“I said to my friend, ‘I will marry this girl one day,’” Turgeon said.

Next up was Caroline Ouellette, who shared stories of her Olympic success with Team Canada, as well as her time playing professionally in the CWHL.

Ouellette discussed getting into coaching after retirement, now helping with the Canadian National program. She is also an associate head coach with Concordia University, sharing bench duties with her wife, Julie Chu.

“She was also a four-time Olympian…with Team USA,” said Ouellette. Chu won four silver medals in the Olympics, losing to Ouellette and Canada each time. “But she’s wonderful, I promise,” she said to a laughing audience. 

She closed her speech by saying she was filled with hope for the future of women’s hockey with the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) set to begin in January 2024.

Ken Hitchcock followed Ouellette, retelling stories of coaching midget hockey in Alberta for 12 years before getting a shot with the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers. He talked about the reputation that he carried throughout his coaching career.

“I believe that you get a do-over once in a while, and I’m going to take this do-over now,” said Hitchcock, looking emotional at times. “It’s about the players that played for me. I was a demanding coach. I was relentless, and I was very proud of being that. I know that may be a bad word to some people, but it’s not to me. It means that I’m not afraid of the players, of doing the tough stuff, and I think the players really appreciated that.

“But I really admired the players. I was in awe of the players, of their ability to sacrifice, to commit and buy into what I was trying to sell,” he continued. “Your buy-in and your sacrifice, I’m in awe of it.”

A trio of speakers honored the late Pierre Lacroix, who was an agent-turned-executive, helping lead the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise to their first two Stanley Cup championships in franchise history.

Joe Sakic led it off, sharing stories of playing under Lacroix between 1988 and 2006. He handed the speaking duties to Max Lacroix, Pierre’s 19-year-old grandson who plays for Colorado in the North American Hockey League. He shared anecdotes and paid tribute to whom he called his “best friend,” then shared the stage with Pierre’s wife Coco, who thanked everyone for honoring her late husband.

Tom Barrasso was next, thanking his parents for adopting him and his siblings, sharing a heartfelt story of when the arena he and his brother and sister skated in as kids went bankrupt, his parents — who couldn’t skate — became the new owners.

“I started working at the arena in the summer when I was 12,” said Barrasso. “Sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, and to this day, I’ve never worked anywhere else but a hockey rink.”

Mike Vernon spoke after Barrasso, saying it felt like it was the year of the goalie for the Hockey Hall of Fame. “Tom, Hank and I: Lifetime members of the goaltender fraternity.”

Vernon thanked his parents, then gave a sincere message to his late mother, Lorraine:

“Mom, you asked me once if I was ever going to go into the Hall of Fame. Well, I made it.”

Vernon also mentioned his children, saying they knew him first as a father, but second as the guy who was scored on by Wayne Gretzky in CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada intro, a reference to Game 2 of the 1988 Smythe Division Final between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers.

“Every weekend, the kids would want to point it out and get a good chuckle out of it,” said Vernon. “You’d think it that was the only goal the guy scored.”

Finally, Henrik Lundqvist spoke about growing up in Sweden and wanting to showcase his talent to the world. He said he liked to think of himself as “a chill guy,” but at the rink, he was not chill, knowing he was not the easiest guy to be around.

“To all my former teammates, just know I was even more demanding of myself,” he said.

After thanking his family, Lundqvist concluded the ceremony with some introspection.

“Hockey is something that guided me through life, that gave me purpose, and I feel so lucky that I found something that gave me so much passion for something from an early age,” said Lundqvist. “It’s given me so much, more than I could ever imagine.”

Here is the full list of the 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame’s Induction Class:

• Ken Hitchcock — Coached over 22 NHL seasons, the fourth winningest coach in NHL history, won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. Retired after the 2018-19 season.

• Pierre Lacroix — Former player agent, hired by Quebec Nordiques as general manager in 1994. He stayed with the franchise when they relocated to Colorado, and won the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001. Lacroix passed away in 2010 at the age of 72.

• Tom Barrasso — Drafted out of high school by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft. Won both the Calder Trophy and the Veznia Trophy in his rookie season, while also being a member of the All-Rookie team First All-Star teams. Traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988, he won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992.

• Henrik Lundqvist — Played every game of his entire playing career with the New York Rangers. Won 459 games, the most by a Rangers’ goaltender and the most for a European-born goaltender in NHL history. Won the Veznia Trophy in 2012. He won an Olympic gold medal in Torino 2006.

• Caroline Ouellette — Four-time Olympic gold medalist, including six World Championship gold medals and six silver medals. She was the first player in CWHL history to reach the 300-point mark.

• Pierre Turgeon — Taken first overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres. Scored 515 goals and 812 assists for 1,327 points in 1,294 regular-season games. The five-time All-Star won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1993.

• Mike Vernon — Won a Stanley Cup with both the Calgary Flames in 1989 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1997. He won 16 of 20 games during the Red Wings’ ’97 Cup run, earning him the Conn Smythe Trophy.