Buffalo Boy's Blog

The recent mediocre class of Hockey Hall of Fame inductees got me thinking, There are probably several Sabres who have better stats than both Glenn Anderson and Igor Larionov that should be in the Hall.

Igor Larionov won cups with Detroit and had a long career but still only managed to put up 169 goals and 475 assists for 644 points. He had only two 20 goal seasons and only two seasons in which he amassed 60 points.

Glenn Anderson, had a better career on an Edmonton Oiler team that would have inflated anyones stats. Anderson compiled 498 goals and 601 assists for 1099 points with the majorit of that with the Oilers and the later part of his career with the Leafs, Rangers and Blues. He scored 50+ goals twice and had 100+ points in three season. While his stats were much better than Larionov, he too, never truly dominated the game. He was the benefactor from playing with Gretzky, Messier and Kurri for those great Edmonton teams of the 1980's.

Here are three Sabres I think should be shoe ins if Larionov and Anderson were both considered as Hall guys:

Dave Andreychk- Better numbers than either Larionov and Anderson and though he is not eligible yet, some would argue when it comes time whether or not he deserves it. He does. He won his cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Big Dave also holds NHL records for most power play goals (astonishing considering the players from his era (Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier), 11th all time in goals scored with 640, 5th most games played in NHL history with 1639, he had 640 goals and 698 assists for 1338 poitns. He should be a first ballot hall of famer.

Danny Gare- While Gare may not have the points, he inched by Larionov's totals and Gare did it in a shorter career. Gare finished with 354 goals and 331 assists. He unlike Larionov had two 50 goal seasons in which he was one of the top wingers in the NHL. Gare he also had a 46 goal season and a few 30 goal seasons. He accomplished those numbers in 12 seasons that saw him with several injuries along the way. If he stayed healthy in some of those years, he probably would have had closer to 500 goals/1000 points.

Mike Foligno- While again not a glowing career, he managed better numbers than Larionov. Mike finished with 355 goals and 372 assists for 727 points. He had one 40 goal season and for the better part of his career was a lock for 20-30 goals. Better than Larionov any year he played.

So, this past years inductees have lowered the standards for the hockey hall of fame. Im sure we could look for more candidates on all teams throughout the league that deserve to be there based on what they have allowed in this year.

Instead of calling it the Hockey Hall of Fame, lets call it the Mediocre Players Retirement Home. Because allowing Larionov in and to a lesser extent Anderson, opens up the doors for several players that should be complaining that they are not sitting next to them.