Time To Right A Wrong: Hockey Hall of Fame Must Induct Rogie Vachon

Gann Matsuda from Frozen Royalty‘s new piece expands on our recent blog post that begs the question: why the hell isn’t Rogie Vachon in the Hall of Fame?
Gann is rightly calling out to the fans to make this wrong right…

LOS ANGELES — Compared to many of today’s goalies who are six feet tall or more, former Los Angeles Kings’ superstar goalie Rogie Vachon is small by comparison, probably around 5-7 (I’m 5-9 and I am taller than Vachon). But despite his relatively small physical stature, Vachon’s place among National Hockey League goalies, past and present, looms large. Based on his performance throughout his sixteen-year NHL career, Vachon is clearly among the elite.

So why, then, has he not been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF)?

When you look closely at the numbers, Vachon certainly deserves to be enshrined among his peers. No one can deny that he was one of the great goalies to ever play the game. Consider that:

During his final year of eligibility in 1998, Vachon was fifth all-time in career wins with 355. Only Glenn Hall (407), Tony Esposito (423), Jacques Plante (434) and former Kings’ goalie Terry Sawchuk (447) had more (all are honored members of the HHOF). Twelve HHOF goalies had fewer wins than Vachon.

Vachon is now sixteenth all-time in career wins, as the likes of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek and others have passed him. Nevertheless, of the fifteen netminders who have won more games than Vachon, only Roy and Fuhr have joined the four goalies mentioned above who are ahead of Vachon in wins and have been inducted into the HHOF.

Nine other goalies who are in the top forty all-time in career wins are honored members of the HHOF despite the fact that Vachon ranks ahead of them. Several other HHOF netminders are not even among the top all-time leaders in wins.

Read the rest and take action at Frozen Royalty