NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Black Pioneer Willie O. Ree and Martin Brodeur, the league's leader in goalie wins, top the latest standings at the Hall of Fame. hockey fame announced Tuesday.

Former Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood did not make the cut.

Mr. Bettman has been a Commissioner since 1993. During this period, the NHL expanded its presence in North America from 24 to 31 teams. During Bettman's tenure, the league went from a $ 437 million business to a business with nearly $ 5 billion in revenue.

With Bettman and O & # 39; Ree in the Builder category, striker Martin St. Louis, Jayna Hefford, four-time champion of the Canadian Women's National Team and Russian Alexander Yakushev were in the category of six people from 2018 to be inducted on November 12 in Toronto.

"This is not something I focused on and I am speechless and grateful to be included in this group," Bettman said. "I am particularly honored to be part of a class that includes Willie O. Ree."

Wayne Gretzky, NHL scorer, said Bettman's efforts to help each club compete for the Stanley Cup made the game stronger.

"His leadership and his love of hockey are very obvious," said Gretzky. "Hockey has become more fun year after year, thanks in part to his passion for the game."

O 'Ree was the first black NHL player, but he will be the third inductee to the Hall of Fame, joining Grant Fuhr, goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers, and Angela James, captain of the NHL. Canadian Women's National Team.

A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, Oe Ree made his NHL debut in 1958 as a Boston Bruins rookie. The winger has amassed four goals and 10 assists in 45 games in the NHL during the 1957-58 and 1960-61 seasons, while he was 95 percent blind in his eye law.

"This honor is long overdue because Willie has been a great figure in our sport, whether on the ice or out for more than 60 years," said Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. "We are lucky to have been able to call Willie a Bruin when he debuted in 1958 and we could not be happier for him to finally receive the recognition that he deserves so much."

Eric Zweig, hockey historian and author of "Stanley Cup: 120 Years of Hockey Supremacy" and "Glory Days: Hockey in the 1950s and 1960s," said that O & # 39; Ree played well in the Hockey League. West with Los Angeles and San Diego but did not have the opportunity with the Kings.

"Part of this, of course, may be due to the fact that he was blind in one eye – although I do not know how many people were aware of this when he was playing," Zweig said.

Now 82 years old, O. Ree works for the NHL as an ambassador for diversity in the "Hockey is for everyone" initiative. Sixty years after crossing the league's color barrier, there are now two dozen black players.

"This honor would not be possible if I did not join the league in 1996," said O. Ree. "I was given a second wind to give back to the game."

Brodeur, 46, has been a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the New Jersey Devils. He was named the NHL's first goaltender with the most wins, laps and matches in the history of the NHL.

The Montrealer was the last real goaltender because his position was almost exclusively in the butterfly technique, and his prowess in handling the puck led the NHL to set the trapeze behind the net to increase the lead. score. At net, Brodeur won 369 wins and 125 shutouts in 1,266 regular season games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues, and he won the Vézina Trophy four times. He has won 113 playoff games and posted a 2.02 goals-against average in the playoffs. Brodeur also scored two goals in the regular season and another in the playoffs – more than any other goalie.

"I've had the chance to play in great teams that have allowed me to play with my own personality, which is so important for a goalkeeper," said Brodeur.

The Devils retired from No. 30 Brodeur in 2016 and later this year unveiled a statue of his famous salute in front of their arena in Newark. Sharks forward Joel Ward said the NHL should pull out of the NHL as Major League Baseball did it with Jackie Robinson's number 42, in tribute to the player who broke the color barrier baseball.

St. Louis, a 5-foot-8 winger, has accumulated 1,033 points in 1,134 regular-season games in 17 seasons, won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and an Olympic gold medal with Canada in 2014. He is just the sixth undrafted player in league history with more than 1,000 points.

Hefford has won four Olympic gold medals and seven world championships, totaling 30 points in 26 Olympic games. Yakushev became known to North American hockey fans during the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, with 11 points in eight games. He also won gold medals in 1972 and 1976.

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