Chris Pronger admired the Ducks’ talent when he and the Edmonton Oilers defeated Anaheim in the 2006 Western Conference finals. When he was traded to the Ducks a few months later, he brought the physical element they needed to become champions in 2007.
“Scott Niedermayer was the only one who had won a Stanley Cup and there was a few of us that had been to a final and lost,” Pronger said. “There was just that burning desire and hunger to get back there and try to win one.”
Pronger, one of the most feared but coveted defensemen of his generation, headlined a seven-person class elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. The group, which will be inducted Nov. 9 at a ceremony in Toronto, also includes in the players’ category skillful forward Sergei Fedorov, creative defenseman Phil Housley, seven-time Norris Trophy winner Nick Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings, and four-time U.S. Olympic women’s medalist Angela Ruggiero of Simi Valley, Calif.
Elected in the builders’ category were Bill Hay, a former NHL rookie of the year and former chairman of the Hall, and Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr., who for decades has been involved in youth hockey around his native Detroit.
Housley is the third-highest scorer among American players with 1,232 points over 23 NHL seasons. He retired in 2003. “I can’t tell you how shocked, excited, extremely proud I am of being able to enter with all these players in this year’s class and the past class,” he said.
Lidstrom, a lock in his first year of eligibility, and Fedorov, brought to nine the number of Hall of Famers from the Red Wings’ 2002 championship team.