By: Eric Duhatschek, Hailey Salvian, Max Bultman and Lukas Weese
On Tuesday, the Hockey Hall of Fame revealed the newest members that will be enshrined among the sport’s legends. Pavel Datsyuk, Shea Weber, Jeremy Roenick, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, Natalie Darwitz, Colin Campbell and David Poile make up the 2024 class to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this November.
Of the seven names, five were players and two were builders. It is the first time since 2010 that two women are being inducted into the same Hockey Hall of Fame class.
Datsyuk played 14 NHL seasons, all with the Detroit Red Wings. During his career, he recorded 314 goals and 604 assists. Nicknamed the “Magic Man,” Datsyuk will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Shea Weber played 16 years in the NHL, 11 with the Nashville Predators and five with the Montreal Canadiens. Playing 1,038 career games, Weber tallied 224 goals and 365 assists. Weber, a two-time first-team All-Star, won two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in 2010 and 2014 along with world championship gold in 2007.
Jeremy Roenick played for 20 seasons in the NHL and was a member of five different teams. Drafted No. 8 in 1988, Roenick began his career with the Chicago Blackhawks (1988 to 1996), before playing with the Phoenix Coyotes (1996 to 2001, 2006-07), Philadelphia Flyers (2001 to 2004), Los Angeles Kings (2005-06) and San Jose Sharks (2007 to 2009). Roenick scored 513 goals during his career, making him one of 47 players to record 500-plus NHL goals.
Wendell-Pohl played college hockey with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. In 2004-05, Pohl set an NCAA record for most shorthanded goals during a season (seven). Internationally for Team USA, Pohl won silver at the 2002 Olympics, bronze at the 2006 Olympics and gold at the 2005 women’s world hockey championship.
Darwitz captained the U.S. national women’s team for several seasons in her career. She won three world championship gold medals, two Olympic silver medals and one Olympic bronze.
Colin Campbell worked with the NHL in hockey operations, officiating and central scouting for the past 25 seasons. He won a Stanley Cup as an associate coach with the New York Rangers in 1994.
David Poile was the general manager with the Nashville Predators from 1997 to 2023 and with the Washington Capitals from 1982 to 1997. After the 2017-18 season, Poile became the longest-tenured GM in NHL history. He won the NHL’s General Manager of the Year award in 2017, the same season the Predators reached the Stanley Cup Final. During Poile’s tenure as GM of the Capitals, Washington clinched a playoff spot 14 times.
The 2024 Hockey Hall of Fame class induction ceremony occurs on Nov. 11.
Profiling the 2024 class
Everyone who thought about it was trying to figure out what the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee might do with all the available Russian players up for election this year.
On Tuesday afternoon, we got the answer.
Breaking with a five-year tradition, in which no Russian player had been voted in since Sergei Zubov in 2019, the Hall elected Datsyuk as part of a seven-member class of 2024 that also included Weber, Roenick, Darwitz, Wendell-Pohl, Poile and Campbell.
Like Datsyuk, Weber was selected in his first year of eligibility. By contrast, Roenick, the other player chosen in the male player category, had been retired for 15 years and was eligible for 12 before he finally got in. It was a curious class on some levels, noteworthy because, among others, Alex Mogilny, Keith Tkachuk, John LeClair and Rod Brind’Amour remain on the outside looking in. If sentiment had entered into the equation, then there might not have ever been a better year to elect Tkachuk. On Monday night, his son, Matthew won the first Stanley Cup in family history — and celebrated with his mom, his dad and his brother present. Had Keith gotten the call from the Hall, that would have been a memorable 24-hour period for the Tkachuk family clan. That might have been the primary narrative had it gone that way.
Instead, most of the attention was centered on Datsyuk, the long-time Red Wings’ star who won seven major NHL trophies — three Selkes, four Lady Byngs and two Stanley Cups.
Internationally, he is a member of the IIHF’s exclusive Triple Gold Club — players who’ve won the Olympics, the Stanley Cup and a world championship. After completing his NHL career, he returned to Russia and played the final five seasons of his career in the KHL, winning the Gagarin Cup in 2017.
But Russia — and Russian players — have become a flashpoint on the world hockey scene, ever since the war in Ukraine. Currently, the International Ice Hockey Federation banned both Russia and Belarus from international competition, as a protest against the war. When the NHL set up its 2025 Four Nations tournament, the first attempt to get best-on-best play restarted, Russia — one of hockey’s traditional powers — was excluded from the event.
By contrast, Datsyuk represented a different challenge, because his all-around credentials made him harder to overlook.
Mike Gartner, in an interview on TSN, reiterated comments he’s made nearly every year since taking over as committee chair from John Davidson. Just because someone doesn’t get in this year doesn’t mean it’s forever.
“It’s a process,” said Gartner. “At the end of the day, if they’re a Hall of Famer, they’re going to get into the Hall of Fame. It might not be right now. It might not be next year. But they’ll get into the Hall of Fame sometime in the future.”
The dilemma facing the committee in 2024 was whether to elect Datsyuk right away, or push his candidacy into that future that Gartner? He wouldn’t have been the first player with sparkling credentials, who didn’t get the call in his first year of eligibility.
A player couldn’t have played any meaningful hockey in three years before becoming eligible for selection, which is why Weber was under consideration. The 38-year-old, who played 1,038 career games over 16 seasons with first Nashville, then Montreal, hasn’t officially retired yet, though the cumulative effect of his injuries means his playing career is over.
As a player, Weber was known for his lethal slapshot and his big-bodied presence. He recorded 589 career points, was a Norris Trophy finalist as the NHL’s best defenseman three times, and also produced an impressive international resume. Representing Canada on the world stage, Weber won gold at the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championships, the 2007 IIHF World Championships in Russia, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.
Of the three male players selected, Roenick was arguably the most surprising, given that he’d been eligible since 2012. However, he did have the most points (1,216) among eligible players not in the Hall. But he was considered one of the most complete two-way players in the game; even though he never won a major individual award, or a Stanley Cup. Gartner noted that he played alongside Roenick for a time in the Phoenix Coyotes’ organization.
“Every time when we were playing against the Chicago Blackhawks, his name was circled on the board,” said Gartner. “Those are the players that make a difference in the game. The longer you have your name circled on the board, over the course of a career, the more chance you have to get in the Hall of Fame.
“Jeremy Roenick had a passion for the game. He played the game hard. He was flashy, at a time when flashy wasn’t all that in. Now it is – and the players nowadays can thank someone like Jeremy Roenick for that.”
Among the more prominent players eligible in the first year that didn’t get in were Patrick Marleau, the NHL’s all-time leader in games played (1,779), and goaltenders Pekka Rinne and Ryan Miller, each of whom won a Vezina Trophy in their careers.
Gartner noted that the discussions are “so honest and so lively … I can tell you we obviously everybody we selected are worthy of Hall of Fame induction status — and yet there are a number of players who didn’t get selected, and they’re usually the ones that cause the most controversy and discussion.”
There were several strong candidates in the women’s player category, but ultimately the committee chose two American players, Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl, who were mainstays of their national program for a decade. The fact that Jennifer Botterill, eligible since 2014, remains on the outside looking in is puzzling.
Poile is the NHL’s all-time winningest general manager, beginning with Washington in 1982, until he stepped down last year as the first and at that point, only general manager in Nashville Predators history. Poile’s father, Bud, is also in the Hall of Fame as a builder. Interestingly, Poile serves on the selection committee. By rule, he would have to recuse himself from the discussion of his candidacy.
Campbell, meanwhile, was also a long-time selection committee member, who has worked in the NHL front office for most of Gary Bettman’s time as NHL commissioner as the senior executive vice president of hockey operations.
The committee is chaired by Gartner (HHOF class of 2001) and also includes David Branch, Brian Burke, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Mark Chipman, Marc de Foy, Ron Francis, Cammi Granato, Anders Hedberg, Jari Kurri, Igor Larionov, Pierre McGuire, Bob McKenzie, Scott Morrison, Mike Murphy, Poile, Luc Robitaille and Joe Sakic.
Full disclosure: I served on the committee for 15 years between 2004 and 2018, and it is a daunting task — and frustrating sometimes because you only get one vote; and ultimately, the supermajority rules. The committee elected the maximum number of female players and builders but left one spot unfilled in the male player category — presumably, because of a split vote. By rule, a candidate must get 14 out of a possible 18 votes to gain induction. I would have liked to have seen Tkachuk make the grade. That would have rounded out the class nicely. — Eric Duhatschek, senior NHL writer
Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl: Teammates on the ice and in the Hall
Two women are being inducted into the same Hall of Fame class for the first time since 2010, and only the second time ever.
It’s a bit of a surprising Class of 2024, given there were some high-profile or more freshly eligible candidates, like Meghan Duggan, Julie Chu and Botterill. But that doesn’t mean that Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl were not deserving on their own merit. That they are only being enshrined in 2024 speaks to the broader issue that has been facing the Hockey Hall of Fame over the last decade — a growing backlog of qualified female athletes.
Let’s start with Darwitz, who led PWHL Minnesota to the league’s first-ever championship only four weeks ago, and was let go as the team’s general manager only days after lifting the league trophy. She is a Minnesota hockey icon with a resume that has long been destined for Hall of Fame enshrinement.
She made her Team USA debut as a 15-year-old at the 1999 women’s world championship and led the 2002 Olympics in goals as a teenager only a few years later. Darwitz won eight medals at world championships (three gold, five silver) and three medals (two silver, one bronze) at the Olympics. She was named to multiple all-star teams, led tournaments in scoring and was named the best forward at the 2008 world championships, her first tournament as captain of Team USA. In 55 games at world championships and the Olympics, Darwitz scored 43 goals and 83 points.
Darwitz — from Eagan, Minn. — also won two NCAA championships in three years for the University of Minnesota and was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award in each season she played college hockey. Nobody had more points than Darwitz over her college career, with 102 goals and 246 points in 99 games from 2002 to 2005. The next highest scorer? Wendell-Pohl (106 goals and 237 points).
It’s actually quite fitting that Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl are being inducted into the same class, given their time together on Team USA and the Golden Gophers. The duo won back-to-back NCAA championships together at Minnesota and played on Team USA together for nearly a decade.
In 2004-05, Wendell-Pohl won the Patty Kazmaier, as the top player in women’s college hockey, a gold medal at women’s world championships and was named tournament MVP. With Team USA, Wendell-Pohl won six medals at world championships (one gold, five silver) and two Olympic medals (one silver, one bronze). She was captain of the 2006 Olympic team and led the team in scoring at two women’s world championships. Wendell-Pohl was more than a point-per-game player at major international events tallying 25 goals and 69 points in 39 games at the Olympics and world championships combined. — Hailey Salvian, women’s hockey staff writer
Datsyuk’s legacy
Datsyuk was one of the defining players of his generation, a magician with the puck who was also an elite defensive forward. He won three Selke Trophies in his career, finished top-five for four more, and added four Lady Byng Trophies for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct.
He finished his NHL career with 918 points in 953 games and two Stanley Cups, and is a member of the Triple Gold club having won the Cup plus Gold medals at the World Championship and Olympic Games.
But numbers and awards are only part of Datsyuk’s legacy, as his legendary dekes and puckhandling made him an icon of the game. He made the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players list in 2017-18, and now enters elite company as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. — Max Bultman, Red Wings beat writer
(Photo: Scott Audette / NHLI via Getty Images)
