Ronning thinks ex-Canucks teammate Mogilny should finally get Hall of Fame call
Is this finally Alexander Mogilny’s time? An ex-Vancouver Canucks teammate of his thinks it should be.
The Hockey Hall of Fame will announce its 2023 inductees on Wednesday, and once again Mogilny is in the running.
Mogilny hasn’t played since 2006 and has been eligible for induction for the last 14 years.
But in each year, he has been overlooked.
Mogilny scored 1,032 points during his 990-game NHL career with the Canucks, Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
That’s why Cliff Ronning is going to bat for his former linemate.
Mogilny hands down ! One of the most talented players I ever played with or against .
— Cliff Ronning (@CliffRonning7) June 20, 2023
“Mogilny hands down!” Ronning said of Mogilny, responding to an engaging tweet by @Bardown. “One of the most talented players I ever played with or against.”
Ronning and Mogilny were teammates for just one season in Vancouver, with Ronning helping the skilled Russian winger score 55 goals and 107 points in 1995-96. Only Pavel Bure has ever scored more goals in a season by a Canucks player than Mogilny did that year, and only Henrik Sedin and Bure have tallied more points.
Only Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, and Mario Lemieux have ever scored more goals in a season than Mogilny did in 1992-93, when he filled the net 76 times with the Buffalo Sabres.
Since Mogilny was first snubbed in 2009, multiple forwards have been inducted into the Hall of Fame with fewer points than he tallied, including Bure (779 points), Peter Forsberg (885), Eric Lindros (865), Paul Kariya (989), and Guy Carbonneau (663).
While Bure, Forsberg, and Lindros scored more points per game than Mogilny did during their careers, Mogilny’s 1.04 P/GP is better than Kariya’s (1.00) and is more than double Carbonneau’s (0.50).
The only eligible player not in the Hall of Fame with at least 1,000 points and a better points-per-game average than Mogilny is Bernie Nicholls, who scored 1,209 points in 1,127 games.
Mogilny also checks boxes for team success, winning a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2000 and gold medals in international play at the Olympics in 1988, as well as the World Juniors and World Championship in 1989.
The 54-year-old also has a tremendous story to tell, as the first player to defect from the Soviet Union to come to the NHL, which he did in 1989. Mogilny currently ranks behind only Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Sergei Fedorov on the all-time list of Russian-born scorers.
But will he get in? Last year, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Roberto Luongo, and Daniel Alfredsson got in. The only slam-dunk candidate this year among male players is former New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Other top candidates include Curtis Joseph, Henrik Zetterberg, Rod Brind’Amour, Keith Tkachuk, and Patrik Elias.
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