The First Overall Pick in 2009, John Tavares began his pro career with the New York Islanders.  With the Isles, Tavares was a five-time All-Star, one-time First Team All-Star and was the face of the franchise.  However, home is where the heart is, and the native of Mississauga, Ontario jumped at the chance to fulfill his childhood dream and wear the blue and white.  That came true in 2018, when the Center signed as a Free Agent.

While it might seem that Tavares has not been as productive as a Maple Leaf, based on All-Star appearances, he has not had to be Toronto’s top scorer like he had to be in New York.  That being said, Tavares goes into this season with a higher Point-per-Game Average in Toronto, and his 88-Point/47 Goal year in 2018-19 was his highest to date.  Since then, Tavares has produced Point outputs of 60, 50, 76, 80 and 65, which have helped the Maple Leafs reach the playoffs each year.

Tavares would love nothing better than to complete the boyhood dream and hoist the Stanley Cup as a Maple Leaf.  He has the surrounding parts to make it happen.

A significant retirement took place as Goran Dragic has announced his retirement from Basketball.

From Slovenia, Dragic had a solid career on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning his career with Slovan of the Slovenian League in 2004.  After two seasons, he played for Murcia of the Spanish League for a season, before returning to Slovenia, this time for KK Olimpija, where he led them to a League Championship, League Cup and Supercup win.  His work in Europe gained attention from the NBA, and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the Second Round in 2008.

Dragic joined the Suns, playing there for two-and-a-half seasons before he was traded to the Houston Rockets, but after a full year there, he signed back with the Suns, where he became a starter at Guard.   His NBA game went to the next level in 2013/14, where he had his first 20-plus PPG year and won the Most Improved Player of the Year.

In 2015, Dragic was traded to Miami where he had his second 20-plus scoring year (2016-17) and was named to the All-Star Team in 2018.  He closed his NBA career with brief stops in Toronto, Brooklyn, Chicago and Milwaukee, and overall played 946 games with 12,568 Points.

Internationally, Dragic led Slovenia often, and led them to a Gold Medal in the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket, where he was the tournament MVP.

He will be eligible for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2027, and his best path of entry is through the International Category, though there will be stiff competition.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish Goran Dragic the best in his post-playing career.

1954 PRELIMINARY RESULTS:

Thank you for all of you who have participated in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project, and if you are unaware of what that is, simply, we acted as if the PFHOF had their first class in January of 1946?

We have completed the first two years, where a Preliminary, Semi-Final and Final vote for the 1946 Class, which inducted two full classes

For “1954” a Preliminary Vote with over 130 players whose playing career ended by 1948. We are also following the structure in that players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.

Each voter was asked to select 25 names from the preliminary list, with the top 25 vote getters named as Semi-Finalists.

A week later, the voters will be asked to pick 15 names from the 25 Semi-Finalists, and next after, they will pick five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process weekly until we catch up to the current year.

Please note that a significant change took place, allowing for voters to submit less than the allotted spots.  A glitch did not allow for that to occur in Coaches/Contributors.  That will be rectified in the future.

30 Votes took place

This is for the “Modern Era”

Bold indicates they advanced to the Semi-Finals:

This is for the “Senior Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Semi-Finals:

This is for the Coaches/Contributors

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Semi-Finals:

Next Saturday, we will be posting the results of the 1954 Finalists of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project.

Thank you to all who contributed, and if you want to be a part of this project, please let us know!

A Second Round Pick in 2013, Tristan Jarry first made it to the Penguins in 2016, and was bouncing back and forth between the NHL and AHL for three years.  Jarry won the starting job in 2019/20, and posted a 2.43 GAA with a seventh-place finish in Vezina voting.

Jarry then solidified himself as one of the better Goalies in the NGL, going to the All-Star Game in both 2020 and 2022, and would again finish seventh in Vezina voting in 2021/22, where he was sixth in GAA (2.42).  Still with Pittsburgh, Jarry’s rank could catapult with a top-five performance in net.