gold star for USAHOF
Gump Worsley (and again, this is a name we absolutely love) may have lost more games than he won in the NHL, but that is widely due to being on some awful teams, in which he was still praised by fans for keeping those squads as competitive as they were. Gump did play for some abysmal teams in the 50’s, but in the 60’s he found himself with a powerful Montreal Canadians team and elevated his game accordingly. He enjoyed the best years of his career and won four Stanley Cups and two Vezina Trophies. Gump would play for 21 NHL seasons finishing off with the Minnesota North Stars until the age of 44. Gump Worsley may not have reached the Hall without his Montreal stint, but is it wrong that we love him in the Hall because his name is “Gump”?
The first German born entry into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Gunther Sabetzki did a lot in his native country to help grow the sport. He would serve as the first German President of the IIHF, and worked diligently not just to grow Hockey in Germany, but throughout the world. Under his near two decade as the IIHF President, membership increased from 31 to 50 nations. The international game owes a lot to the work of Gunther Sabetzki.
The offensive leader of the Montreal Canadians, Guy Lafleur was the dominant Right Wing in the NHL for the last half of the 1970’s. Not only did “The Flower” win five Stanley Cups, but he won the Art Ross Trophy three years in a row, twice capturing the Hart Trophy. From 1975 to 1980, Lafleur was named to the First Team All Star team at Right Wing; which is quite the impressive run don’t you think?
As part of the Montreal Canadians “Big Three” defence corps, Guy Lapointe was a member of six Stanley Cups. He was an offensively gifted player who would top the 60 points mark three consecutive seasons and remained an asset on the defensive side. He was a devastating force on the power play and equally adept with punishing checks. Lapointe would be a Post Season All Star four times, but again that is secondary to the six Cups he helped the Habs win in the 1970’s.
Clarence “Hap” Day may not have been the best scoring Defenseman in Hockey history, but he was part of dynamic tandem with King Clancy and was the Toronto Maple Leafs Captain for a decade. Hap Day’s natural leadership skills transferred well behind the bench and as the Leafs Head Coach he won five Stanley Cups. Despite being a demanding and detailed coach, he received the most from his teams. This is the mark of an excellent leader.
The first Goalie to win the Stanley Cup with four different teams, Hap Holmes seems to be forgotten player in Hockey lore. His career may look like that of a journeyman, but wherever he went, wins followed as did Stanley Cups. His stand up goaltending style and seemingly effortless play erroneously made many fans and pundits thing that he was ‘lazy’. Holmes was not that, and rightfully took his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.
Harley Hotchkiss was part of the consortium that brought (or rescued) the Flames from Atlanta and brought them to Calgary. He also worked to build the Saddledome, which was built for the Calgary Flames and served as the Hockey venue for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Likely what secured Hotchkiss’ Hall of Fame induction was his long serving tenure as the Chairman on the NHL’s Board of Governors. We will wager without that last role on his resume, he would not have gotten in.
Much like Bill Wirtz’ induction, we are guessing that Toronto fans felt the same way about the performance of Harold Ballard AFTER he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Ballard was a longtime supporter of Hockey on multiple levels and did a lot financially for amateur hockey teams in the Toronto area for years. In the early 60’s, along with Stafford Smythe and John Bassett Sr., Harold Ballard became the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.   The Leafs would dominate the 60’s, and Ballard would see his team win three Stanley Cups under his partial ownership. With the buying out of Bassett and the death of Smythe, Ballard would become the sole owner of the team, and though they did not win a cup in the 70’s, were still competitive. By the 80’s though, Harold became a caricature of himself, and was the leader of a floundering team. He was never as disliked as Wirtz was in the end, but many people in Toronto questioned a lot more than Ballard’s Hall of Fame induction in the 1980’s.  
Considered the first player to develop a curved shot (with a straight stick no less!), Harry Cameron was a brilliant rushing Defenseman who won three Stanley Cups. Cameron would twice lead the league in assists and was credited for the first ever “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” in the NHL, which is indicative of scoring a goal, an assist and a getting into a fight. How this is not an official National Hockey League statistic is beyond us!
A very good Defenceman who knew how to control his end of the ice expertly, Harry Howell won the Norris Trophy in 1967 (the last before Bobby Orr dominated the award) and was named a First Team All Star that year. Although, he was never named to another Post Season team, he was good enough to have played in seven All Star contests. Howell was known for his leadership and durability. At the time of his retirement, Howell played in more games in the NHL than any other Defenceman. Sadly, he was saddled the bulk of his career with mediocre teams (mostly for the Rangers) and never really sniffed the Stanley Cup, but he was honored properly by New York for his accomplishments there.
Another one of the game’s early heroes, Harry Hyland was a very good scorer and had his best efforts with the Montreal Wanderers. Hyland was a very good goal scorer (he once scored eight goals in a game) and was one of the better players for the Montreal Wanderers, but was he a Hall of Famer? Frankly, we have our doubts.
There are a lot of interesting facts about Harry Lumley’s NHL career. He played for five of the Original Six teams (albeit only for one game for the Rangers), and debuted at the age of seventeen. He had an up and down career and won only one more game than he lost. He had the most wins in a season twice, but three times was also led the NHL in losses. He played for great teams and terrible teams, and do you get the feeling that we are telling “A Tale of Two Cities”?
A very good Right Wing with the Calgary Tigers in the Western Canadian Hockey League, Harry Oliver was a solid goal scorer and a gentlemanly player (he never exceeded more than 25 PIM in any season). After the end of the WCHL, Oliver entered the NHL and became a decent player with the Boston Bruins and New York Americans. With that said, his induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame is a little bit suspect, as he was never a dominant player at any time, and his lone Stanley Cup win was as a complimentary player.
A successful coach in the minors, Harry Sinden took over the helms of the Boston Bruins at the tender age of thirty three. Quickly, under his guidance and an influx of talent, the Bruins turned around and won two Stanley Cups. Despite those elite championships in the National Hockey League, it was his coaching of Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, where the Canadians won in a grueling eight game series where he was considered at this best. Sinden would later take over as the General Manager for Boston and managed to continually ice competitive teams.
Harry Trihey was a star forward for the Montreal Shamrocks at the turn of the century at a time when they dominated the Stanley Cup. Trihey’s biggest contribution to the sport of Hockey was getting his defencemen to rush the puck instead of simply shooting the puck in the air automatically. His strategic innovations alone make him Hall of Fame material.
The second of two Veteran’s Category inductees in the 1994 Class, Harry Watson entered the Hall with a decent resume as a five time Stanley Cup champion and a seven time All-Star game participant. Watson was a decent scorer and rarely made mistakes, but his overall performance was usually as a complementary player and not necessarily as the top star. Granted, he did play in many All-Star games, but back then it was the Champions (of which he was on five) against the best players from the rest of the NHL. It is not a travesty to have Harry Watson in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but if he was omitted it is not exactly a huge snub.
Although Harry Watson was a career amateur Hockey player, it was not because he did not have multiple and lucrative offers to play professionally. Watson was a two time Allan Cup winner and he led his team (the Toronto Granites) to an Olympic Gold for Canada in the 1924 Olympics where he scored 36 goals in five games. Watson not only made the Hockey Hall of Fame, but was also selected for the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.
Harry “Rat” Westwick always seemed to win wherever he went. A tenacious and consistent player, Harry Westwick was a very good goal scorer for the Ottawa Silver Seven and was part of multiple Stanley Cup winners. As such, he was rewarded with a Hall of Fame induction the same of many of his Silver Seven teammates.
Hartland Molson (Yes, Canadians, he is from THAT Molson family) would become the President and Chairman of the Montreal Canadians and under his watch, the Habs became the most valuable commodity in the sport of Hockey. Molson also worked on behalf of the NHL Finance funds and was a big part in owner/player relations. Maybe, Gary Bettman could have used him the last twenty years.
A certifiable icon in the early days of Ottawa hockey, Harvey Pulford was not just a star defenseman for the Capital City, but was a legitimate athletic star in multiple sports. As hockey grew, Pulford became one of its first stars, and hands down, an important part of Ottawa sporting history. As such, Pulford was a star in early hockey and became a legitimate legend in overall athletics and likely would have been named the Canadian athlete of the first half of the 20th Century had it not been for Lionel Conacher.