OT: Shanahan, Chelios elected to Hockey Hall of Fame
alongside Scott Niedermayer, Geraldine Heaney and Fred Shero. Chelios elected in his first eligible year, Shanahan in his second.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2013/07/09/chris-chelios-headl…
Congrats to all of them.
I love seeing Wings getting inducted.
I am very curious to hear Chelios' speech. I can only imagine he will give a lot of praise and support to Chicago and Detroit. It took him a while, but he really grew to absolutely love Detroit. I still remember him crying when he found out he was going to his lifelong archrival Detroit.
I remember hating Chelios as much as any player in the league. Then I woke up one morning and Chelios was a Redwing and all I could think of was "THIS. IS. AWESOME! I love Chris Chelios!"
Man... it took me a while to get used to seeing Chelios in a Winged Wheel jersey.
I'm glad it happened, as I'm sure Chelios is too.
Big fan of Chelios! Loved watching him play for Chicago all those years. Congrats to him on a great career with both Chicago and Detroit.
Is the Hockey Hall of Fame like the Baseball Hall of Fame where the players "Go In As" a member of a particular team although their entire career is mentioned in the bio on their plaque. If thats the case, I wonder if Chelios and Shanahan go in as Wings?
The opposite actually. They just go in as players, not affiliated with any team
Congratulations to all the inductees.
Shanahan and Chelios join select company in the Hockey Hall Of Fame, but also other Wings through time (even for a portion of their career), including Dino Cicarelli, Steve Yzerman, Paul Coffey, Igor Larionov, Bret Hull, Luc Robitaille, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and many, many others. An honor for them both, and an honor for the franchise.
both class acts and well deserving
which will it be? Sounds to me like Chris has a tough decsion. Hometown team or the one that employees him?
The Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't put players in with teams. It's based off of your whole career, not just a segment of it
from the Wings facebook:
Shanny was my favorite player on the Wings as a kid, and I've always loved great American players like Chelios (though he should have hung em up a bit earlier, but that isn't the point here).
Somehow I'm surprised they were all still playing that year. Anybody but Crosby, maannnn. That was the dong punch to end all dong punches.
where he won his first Stanley Cup. To have been a productive member and standout player of 3 storied franchises is definitely first-year-eligible hall-worthy.
that I think anyone who has met Chelios will agree that this election couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The time he took within the hockey community to reach out to youth organizations and be there when asked was exceptional, even compared to a lot of guys who were genuinely committed to doing the same.
A bit of a personal story, I'm about eleven and playing at the United Center before a Blackhawks v. Red Wings game the year after his trade and through some personal connections to him Chelios takes time during his pregame warmups to come give a talk to our peewee team and even went around talking to us individually. When he gets up to me, he knows who I am (Dean Chelios and I played in the same organization and skated together often) and we talk for a bit when I get the courage up to ask him about Yzerman and tell him how much I like his new captain as a player, he says something non-commital and moves on. Fast forward to post-game, and there's a Red Wings puck with Chelios and Yzerman's signatures on it sitting on the chair in front of my locker. That was awesome and the highlight of that day, despite getting to play at the UC and getting to do the shoot the puck contest after the second period.
Now has six HOF members, by my count (The Captain, Igor, Hull, Robitaille, Shanny and Cheli), with three more locks (Hasek, Fedorov, Lidstrom) and one strong possibility (Datsyuk). Most were near the back end of their careers, but wow. Hard to imagine seeing anywhere near that many HOF guys on one team these days.
at most on that team is all that needs to be said, regardless of how unseasoned he was. I catch myself looking for material on that team sometimes and it really is ridiculous how stacked they were. Even more ridiculous now that putting together an "all-Red Wings team" (strange concept) would mean leaving at least one Hall of Famer on the bench.
During that season, they were giving away posters of 9 of those guys...not sure who wasn't on it, likely Datsyuk. I grabbed a couple of them which are now in the memorabilia vault of the LL Estate (i.e. unfinished man cave or "basement")
in our 22 year run of playoffs we have had a solid dozen hall of famers, maybe more...
I count:
yzerman
hull
chelios
Coffey
Wendel Clark (for a week, lol)
Robaitatie (I can't spell)
Hasek
Lidstrom
Shanahan
Fetisov
Larionov
Larry Murphy
and maybe Pavel and Zetterburg
amazing
http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=676568&cmpid=rss-roose
Well worth reading, it contains this gem:
As a Blackhawk, Chelios was adamant about his hatred for Detroit. Every chance he got against the Red Wings, he would deliver cheap shots, sucker punch players in the corners, and trash talk guys every time he passed the Detroit bench.
A year after arriving in Detroit, Chelios was asked by Ken Daniels, the Red Wings’ TV play-by-play man, what he liked best about playing for the Wings. Chelios answered, “I don't have to play like an idiot anymore.”
let's go red wings!
Hartford Whaler for life. His Red Wing memories pale in comparison to playing in the downtown Hartford shopping mall.
Congrats to both Shanny and Cheli.