Predicting every NHL team’s future Hall of Famers

Dallas Stars – Jere Lehtinen

If we’re finally starting to reward defensively strong forwards with spots in the Hall of Fame, Jere Lehtinen deserves one of those spots. He won three (!!!) Selke Trophies as a wing. To this day, Lehtinen is the only wing to win multiple Selke Trophies.

His offensive numbers aren’t overwhelming, though he had 243 goals and 514 points in 875 games, which isn’t too shabby considering the entirety of his career was played in the dead puck era. What did Lehtinen accomplish that Guy Carbonneau didn’t? Nothing. So yup, Lehtinen should be in the Hall of Fame. Carbonneau getting in opened a Pandora’s box of candidates, just like everyone predicted.

Honorable mentions: Tyler Seguin needs a major award to make his Hall of Fame case stronger. Also, he better hope the 2019-20 season was an outlier (50 points in 69 games). Before the 2019-20 season, Seguin was riding a streak of six straight seasons with at least 70 points.

Jamie Benn has an Art Ross on his resume and a top-three Hart Trophy finish. But other than that, nothing stands out. Benn’s declining numbers aren’t going to help his case, either. It’s too early to tell with Miro Heiskanen, but there’s probably a Norris Trophy or two in his future, so he has a chance at making the Hall of Fame.

Pat Verbeek has 525 career goals, the second-most of any player who isn’t in the Hall of Fame and won’t be a slam dunk candidate when they retire. He also won a Stanley Cup with the Stars in 1998-99. However, the Hall of Fame hasn’t been kind to stat compilers and Verbeek never received a vote for a major award.