tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
You have to remember there was 40 years less history at that time. Guys like Federko and McDonald were better candidates in the mid 80s than if they came up today. They were the 22nd and 23rd players, respectively, to cross the 1000 point mark. Whereas today there are 98. They also seemed more historically relevant at the time, Federko being at that time the player that really defined the St Louis Blues, and McDonald having one of the great “finishing his career on top” stories (which has since been overshadowed by Bourque and others). Would we induct these guys in 2024, hopefully not, but they were a bigger deal at the time.
But a lot of the guys you mention fall into a special category — the selections of the Veterans Category which lasted about a decade. It was an ill-advised attempt to induct underrated players, and ended up making some of the worst selections in the entire HHOF (Laprade being arguably the weakest player in the Hall). It would be like if we decided to go back and add Mike Peca because you know, he was a pretty big deal for a few years there.
The HHOF’s main problem is that they refuse to take a breather and let some smaller classes go in, or perhaps dip into European history rather than NHL’ers, to allow a list of legit candidates to build up. There are nearly twice as many players on a baseball team as on a hockey team, and that HOF feels no compulsion to induct even a single player unless the candidate is legitimately worthy. Meanwhile the HHOF will pull fans out of the stands to ensure they get 4 guys in there every year. There flat-out aren’t that many legit HOF’ers in a typical draft class, so they consistently induct head-scratcher candidates. You’re right, it’s been that way for a long time now, largely the doing of the Veteran’s Category but mainly a matter of just allowing too many inductees per year.
