This morning, the St. Louis Blues took a big step in honoring their storied franchise history. The team announced the establishment of the Blues Hall of Fame, created to “recognize franchise legends.” The inaugural class will be announced on Opening Night for the team; which is October 15, hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The release notes that the Blues Hall of Fame won’t just be limited to players. The franchise’s internal upper echelon will also be open to coaches, managers, and broadcasters “that have made a profound impact on the franchise,” per the team. Members will be added to the Hall of Fame each season, with voting occurring during the offseason. Members of the Blues Hall of Fame committee, current and former members of the Blues organization, Blues alumni members, media members, and Blues fans will be able to nominate people for consideration each year. Eight players will be inducted automatically as their numbers have been retired by the team – Al MacInnis, Bob Gassoff, Bob Plager, Barclay Plager, Brian Sutter, Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, and Chris Pronger. Original owner Sid Salomon Jr. and broadcaster Dan Kelly will also be inaugural members.
- Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong announced today that the team is adding Kurtis Foster and Jeff Shantz to the team’s player development department as coaches. The duo of former NHLers will work under another former NHLer in Lee Stempniak, who remains the team’s director of player development. Foster played in 405 NHL games from 2002 to 2013 and served as an associate coach for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals last year. Shantz, 48, has only had coaching experience in U15 leagues and last played NHL hockey in 2003, with a career in Europe that extended to 2011.
- As reported by TSN’s John Lu, Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness today commented on 2022 first-round pick Brad Lambert, whose opening night spot “has yet to be determined.” He went on to say that Lambert’s skating and speed are NHL-ready, but is unsure about his ability to elevate his intensity and decision-making to NHL standards at this time. Lambert, who’s still just 18, slipped to the Jets at 30th overall after scoring 10 points in 49 Liiga games last season.
Honestly there are just to many self absorbed halls of fame.
Honestly you yap aimless far too often. This just in: many businesses like to recognize their history and past or current employees. Has nothing to do with being self-absorbed. It’s like everything about hockey makes you miserable or confused. Well done.
There’s no need to rush Lambert to the NHL. He needs to be playing top-6 minutes in an offensive role to grow his confidence and his experience and there’s no space in Winnipeg’s top-6. I imagine by the end of this season at the very least, Wheeler and Dubois are gone from the Jets. Next year seems like a logical step for him to play for the big club rather than burn a year of his ELC playing bottom 6-minutes.
No Blues Hall of Fame would be complete without Red Berenson and Glenn Hall, who put the franchise on the map, and you got to figure that Garry Unger is a no-brainer as well.
My all-time favorite player, Cujo, has to be up there.