Looking at all the talent competing in the Stanley Cup Final, we see a litany of players with impressive career resumes. But will we one day look back at the 2022-23 Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers as teams loaded with Hall of Famers?
That’s the theme of the Roundtable this week, for which we’ve invited Hall of Fame historian Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to participate.
How many players currently competing in the Stanley Cup Final will be Hall of Famers? Name them.
MATT LARKIN: Two. I believe Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov will get there someday. Tkachuk will be remembered as one of the best true power forwards of his generation, and back-to-back 100-point seasons put him on a path to some solid volume-total benchmarks, too. Barkov already has one Selke Trophy to his name and might win another someday—plus he’s already at 631 career points by 27. Other than those two, I see a ton of ‘Hall of Very Good’ talents in the Final. Alex Pietrangelo is a three-time second-team all-star but has never finished higher than fourth in a Norris vote. Mark Stone needs a Selke to earn consideration down the road. The iron man streak could earn the healthy scratched Phil Kessel some love, but he hasn’t been consistently dominant in his career. The same goes for Eric Staal. Sergei Bobrovsky has two Vezinas, but so does Tim Thomas, and he’s not in. Jonathan Quick? Quite possibly, but he’s overrated in my book. So I see just the Tkachuk-Barkov duo.
STEVEN ELLIS: I think we will see three: Matt Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov and Jack Eichel. Matt nailed the reasoning for the first two, and hard to disagree there. But I still think Eichel is still only just getting started here. He dealt with injuries and all the turmoil in Buffalo, but he looks so comfortable and offensively dominant with Vegas. It’s a system that seems to work for him, and a healthier Eichel helped bring Vegas from being in a doom-and-gloom situation all the way back to the Stanley Cup final just a year later. There’s still so much more he has to offer. A Stanley Cup would be a good start, but let’s not forget just how good he was before the COVID-19 pandemic—he was easily a top-five player in the NHL. I think he’ll return to that on a consistent basis.
NICK ALBERGA: I’ll go with Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, and Alex Pietrangelo. Hell, we can even have the Jonathan Quick debate all over again, too. At this point, I think Barkov and Tkachuk are shoo-ins. As for Eichel, I think a potential Stanley Cup here puts him back on the right pathway. Hope he can stay healthy. Meantime, assuming Vegas wins, that would be a second Stanley Cup for Pietrangelo. At the very least, he’ll be a bubble HHOFer in my estimation. That said, I think he still has a lot of hockey left in the tank. Fun topic.
MIKE MCKENNA: I’ll say three. Unless the Panthers win the Cup several times, I don’t see Barkov getting in. He’s been underappreciated his entire career and I don’t see that changing. I do think Tkachuk makes it eventually. Winning a cup would surely help his cause. From Vegas, I think Alex Pietrangelo has a real case. As Matt said, he’s never finished at the pointy end of Norris's voting. But Pietrangelo is poised to win a second Stanley Cup as the No. 1 defender for a second NHL franchise. That just doesn’t happen very often any longer. And being captain of the St. Louis team matters. I also think Jonathan Quick deserves to make it – and I think he will. GMs were infatuated with him for years and despite declining play in recent years, Quick is arguably the greatest American goaltender of all time. Two Stanley Cups (maybe a third) and a Conn Smythe, along with some international experience should get him in.
PAUL PIDUTTI: While having your own HHOF metric helps, there’s a difference between who WILL be elected and who DESERVES it. Who will? I suspect Jonathan Quick will get elected based on reputation. Finishing top 10 in save percentage just once (fifth place) in 16 years is a hard no for me personally—he’s more Mike Vernon than Ed Belfour. Despite how electric Matthew Tkachuk has been in the last two years, I’ll bet on Aleksander Barkov. The pair are quietly on similar scoring trajectories with Barkov armed with a Selke. Who’s qualified so far? According to PPS, no one has yet! Each of Kessel, Bobrovsky and Staal fall just short. Quick is not overly close. While I agree with Mike that Alex Pietrangelo has a stellar case and will end up qualified, I’m not sure he makes it out of the stunning gauntlet of defensemen from his era (Chara, Keith, Hedman, Karlsson, Doughty, Letang, Weber, Burns, Josi, Carlson). As for Eichel and Stone, I fear they’ve lost too many games in their prime years to mount a case.
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