Whenever a great player retires from pro sports these days, one of the first things to come up is…”is he a Hall of Famer?”We knew it when Ozzie Smith announced his retirement in 1996 and when Marshall Faulk retired after 2007.There was no doubt for Ozzie, there is no doubt for Faulk.

What about Keith Tkachuk?

 

A great player for nineteen years in the NHL, and one of the best American born players ever.In fact, Tkachuk was only the seventh American to score 1,000 points in the NHL, following Phil Housley, Joe Mullen, Jeremy Roenick, Pat LaFontaine, Brian Leetch and Mike Modano.Former Blue Doug Weight joined the group, too.

So Tkachuk’s greatness is etched in stone.But is that greatness Hall of Fame worthy?Here are his career numbers…

Keith Tkachuk 19 yrs, 1200 games, 538 goals, 525 assists, 1063 points.

There are two players of recent vintage that haven’t made the Hall yet that I note…
Dino Ciccarelli-19 yrs, 1232 games, 608 g, 592 a, 1,200 pts. Retired in ’99
Pat Verbeek-20 yrs, 1,424 games, 522 g, 541 a, 1,063 pts. Retired in ’02

Neither are in the Hall.If those guys haven’t made it…and I’ll grant you that they don’t have Tkacuk’s international resume, can you put him in?

In addition to Hall of Fame locks like Joe Sakic and Brendan Shanahan, you have Jaromir Jagr, Dave Andreychuk, Mats Sundin, Joe Nieuwendyk, Mark Recchi, Modano and Roenick coming up at about the same time. Then you’ll have the wave of Sergei Federov, Jarome Iginla, etc.

Bottom line.I love Tkachuk and would love it if he would make the Hall of Fame.But, he’s a borderline HOFer, and I think it’ll be tough for him to get in.