NHL Nhl Hall Of Fame

New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello will be inducted into the builders section of the the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. The architect of three Stanley Cup-winning teams was the guest on a media conference call on Friday afternoon. Some highlights ...

It's not the more prestigious Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, but the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame has been around since 1973, honoring top American-born hockey players, coaches, and contributors.

The Hall has been through some tough times, as its facility in Eveleth, Minn., was scheduled to close due to low attendance in 2006. The building remains open in Eveleth, and they are still actively inducting new members. The 2009 class features some famous NHL stars, an inventor, and a pioneering group of ladies who changed the face of the sport.

After 20 seasons in the NHL, Joe Sakic is expected to officially announce his retirement at a press conference on Thursday, according to the Denver Post.

Sakic was originally taken with the 15th pick in 1987, when the franchise was still in Quebec, and spent his entire career with the organization -- a career that will certainly be honored with a Hall of Fame ceremony in the near future.

The past two seasons were a challenge for the 40-year-old, as a multitude of injuries held him to only 59 of a possible 164 games. Sakic had surgery on a hernia two years ago and last season missed time due to a herniated disc and broken fingers from an incident with a snowblower. But regardless of the injuries, he was almost a point-per-game player until the end, amassing 52 points during those injury-plagued seasons.

The NHL's Hall of Fame class of 2009 features a reunion of the Detroit Red Wings' 2001-02 Stanley Cup Championship team, and the completion of the best father-son duo in the history of the league. On Tuesday afternoon, Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Brian Leetch were announced as the newest members of hockey's most exclusive club.

New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello was also elected as a builder.

Not really any surprises here, as they make up one of the best quintets to ever enter Toronto.

On Tuesday, the NHL Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2009 and it's pretty much assumed -- and for good reason -- that Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch will be getting their calls for enshrinement in Toronto. Easy choices, all of them.

As Brian Costello of The Hockey News points out, the fourth spot is going to create plenty of debate with such players as Luc Robitaille, Alexander Mogilny, Dave Andreychuk, and Doug Gilmour, among others, also eligible. And let's not forget about The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure.

There's some very sad news out of Detroit this morning, as word has reached the wider world that Colleen Howe, the wife of Hall of Famer Gordie Howe (far right), has died after a long fight with Pick's Disease.

She was 76.

Well, it doesn't actually count, but it was still special. Hall of Famer Glenn Anderson had his number retired by the Edmonton Oilers last night. As the number made its way up to the rafters at Rexall Place and the ceremony was about to conclude, Anderson did something I've never seen at a retirement ceremony before. He took one more outlet pass from Mark Messier and came in for one more breakaway goal. He may have scored 417 goals for the Oilers that actually made their way to the scoreboard, but this is one a lot of fans won't soon forget.

Nearly 20 years since he last skated on the ice for the Capitals and over seven years after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Mike Gartner got a high honor from Washington on Sunday when the team raised his No. 11 to the rafters at Verizon Center.

With all due respect to Trevor Linden and Glen Wesley, two other players honored by their former teams this month, Gartner's number retirement was an usual situation, since both Linden and Wesley had skated with their teams in recent years. Gartner noted at a press conference during Washington's game with Toronto that he had only played once at the Capitals' current home, Verizon Center, a building that is now 11 years old.

He is one of only six players to score 700 goals during a career, and holds the mark for posting 17 30-goal seasons - 15 of which came consecutive. But because he played for five different clubs during a 19-year career, he had been overlooked for team honors, even though he scored 397 goals in a Capitals sweater, a number alone that would place him 79th on the NHL's all-time scoring list.

And, on a night where the Caps looked back at one of the brightest periods in team history and saw a return of several of Gartner's Hall of Fame teammates in Rod Langway, Scott Stevens and Larry Murphy, the current edition of the team showed why it could be entering another golden age of hockey in Washington.