This year’s inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto may not feature any former superstars but the list does include some former Stanley Cup-winners and solid, consistent players. The induction ceremonies on November 18th will see Sergei Zubov, Vaclav Nedomansky, Guy Carbonneau, and Hayley Wickenheiser enter in the players’ category while Jim Rutherford and Jerry York will be inducted as builders.
Guy Carbonneau of Sept-Iles, Quebec, was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens with the 44th overall pick in 1979. After learning the ropes of pro hockey for a couple of seasons in the American Hockey League he established himself in the NHL as an excellent defensive forward from 1982 to 2000. Carbonneau played in 1,318 NHL regular-season games with the Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Canadiens and accumulated 663 points on 260 goals and 403 assists with 38 goals and 93 points in 231 playoff outings.
Carbonneau was an exceptional centre who won the Frank Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward in 1991/92, 1988/89 and 1987/88. The former Canadiens’ captain also helped his teams to three Stanley Cup championships as he hoisted the cup with Montreal in 1985/86 and 1992/93 and again with Dallas in 1998/99.
Russian native Sergei Zubov was one of the NHL’s top defensemen from 1992 to 2009 after beginning his career in his hometown in 1988 with CSKA Moscow. Zubov was then drafted into the NHL by the New York Rangers in 1990 with the 85th overall selection. He skated in 1,068 regular-season games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars and Rangers and notched 152 goals and 619 helpers for 771 points. When retiring from the NHL back in 2009 Zubov was the league’s all-time leading scorer for Russian-born defensemen and is currently ranked second behind Sergei Gonchar.
Zubov made the 2005/06 NHL Second All-Star Team and also proved to be a top postseason performer with 24 goals and 117 points in his 164 playoff contests. He helped the 1993/94 Rangers team capture the Stanley Cup and was a teammate of Carbonneau’s in Dallas in 1998/99 when the Stars hoisted the silverware. On the international level, Zubov helped Russia win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Albertville, Canada in 1992.
Vaclav Nedomansky hails from the former nation of Czechoslovakia and became the first hockey player to reach North America after defecting from a communist Eastern European nation. In 1974 he found himself in Toronto and promptly joined the World Hockey Association’s Toronto Toros. Nedomansky had already played more than 12 years in his homeland when landing in Toronto and the forward scored 41 goals and 81 points in his first pro season with the Toros.
Nedomansky played a second season with the Toros and then skated with the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA for a year. He started the next season in the WHA but then joined the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL after just 12 games. He posted 254 points in his 252 WHA games and had 354 goals along with 534 points prior to that in 388 outings in Czechoslovakia. He played four seasons for the Red Wings and a year each with the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers.
He then retired at the age of 39 in 1983 with 121 goals and 277 points to his name in 420 NHL regular-season contests with three goals and five assists in seven playoff games. On the international front, Nedomansky played with Czechoslovakia at the Olympics in 1968 and 1972 and suited up in numerous World Championship tournaments, totalling 80 goals and 39 helpers for 119 points in 93 contests with the national team of Czechoslovakia.
Center Haley Wickenheiser served as captain of the Canadian National Women’s Team for several years and captured five Olympic medals. She won gold four straight times from 2002 to 2014 and also won a silver in 1998. In addition, she was named the most valuable women’s player of the Olympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City and again in 2006 in Torino, Italy. The native of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan currently works with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the front office and won seven gold medals along with six silvers at the Women’s IIHF World Championships.
She’s also the Canadian women’s’ team all-time leading scorer with 377 points from 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 career games. Wickenheiser debuted with the national team at the age of 15 in 1994 and played 23 years for the squad until 2017. She made hockey history in 2003 when she became the first woman to score in a men’s professional game when she found the back of the net while playing in Finland with HC Salamat of the third division.
Jim Rutherford, who’s currently the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager, won the Stanley Cup in 2005/06 when he was at the helm of the Carolina Hurricanes and the native of Beeton, Ontario then helped guide the Penguins to the title in 2015/16 and again in 2016/17. He was also named the 2015/16 General Manager of the Year.
Jerry York of Watertown, Massachusetts coached for 47 years in the NCAA college league while spending 25 seasons at Boston College, 15 campaigns with Bowling Green and seven seasons with Clarkson. He holds the all-time coaching record for wins in American college hockey at 1,067 and is one of only three head coaches in the NCAA to win a national championship with different schools. He helped Bowling Green win the crown in 1983/84 and won four titles at Boston College from 2000 to 2012.
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