Kraken's Francis Key To Hall Of Fame Vote

Kraken President of Hockey Operations Ron Francis, himself a Hockey Hall of Fame Honored Member as a skater, plays an important role this week as the HHOF announces its 2025 inductees.

The Kraken exec’ is the chairman of the 18-person selection committee, which will decide Monday night and Tuesday morning who to allow into the hallowed Hall. The new inductees will be contacted by phone and their names revealed Tuesday afternoon.

There should be three no-brainers this time around in terms of first ballot locks. That would be Zdeno Chara, the former captain of the Boston Bruins and the defenseman who played more regular season NHL games than any other blueliner in history. His Boston clubs won a Stanley Cup in 2011 and lost the Final on two other occasions; in 2013 to the Chicago Blackhawks and in 2019 to the St. Louis Blues.

He managed to score 209 goals from the back end, adding 471 assists and an ‘old school’ 2,085 penalty minutes while ‘rag-dolling’ opponents.

I happen to know “Big-Z” rather well, having climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with him in 2008 as part of a humanitarian charity effort. We’ve stayed in touch. A monstrous animal on the ice, a thoughtful, tender-hearted gentleman off of it.

Oddly enough, I have an interesting connection to another sure first-ballot inductee. That would be Joe Thornton. I happened to be two months into my tenure doing live television for the Boston Bruins on NESN in 2005 when the infamous, depending on how you look at it, “Joe Thornton Trade” unfolded.

I, for one, thought it was a great one. It opened the door not long after for the Bruins to sign none other than …. Zdeno Chara.

Meanwhile, I’m not the only one who knows Thornton will be going into the Hall of Fame in November. Boston’s 1st-overall pick in the 1997 NHL Draft went on to pile up 1,539 points, 13th all-time, over 23 seasons. He won the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP and the scoring title the year he was traded to the San Jose Sharks. They loved that in Boston.

But it eventually worked out well for both of them.

Other than interviewing him on a few occasions, I don’t know Duncan Keith very well, but with three Stanley Cup rings and a stalwart career with the Chicago Blackhawks, I know he should be inducted this year. He played one season for the Edmonton Oilers at the end of his NHL tenure.

Ryan Getzlaf might get strong consideration, but he’s not a 1st-ballot guy in my mind, and there will be, as always, some disbelief if Alexander Mogilny doesn’t finally get the nod. A superstar of the 1990’s and a Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils in 2000, Mogilny scored 473 goals and racked up more than a thousand points in 990 NHL games with four different clubs.

If he doesn’t get in, then 1st-year candidates Dustin Brown and Jason Spezza don’t deserve a sniff.

Francis will mediate the discussions and potential arguments. Let’s hope they get it right.