The United States Hockey Hall of Fame has announced the Class of 2025, which will include four players (Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Scott Gomez & Tara Mounsey) and one builder (Bruce Bennett).

This group will be the 53rd Class for the Eveleth, Minnesota-based institution, and the induction will take place in St. Paul on December 10.

The Class of 2025 is:

Zach Parise:  From Minneapolis, Parise played 19 years in the NHL with extended stays in New Jersey and Minnesota.  An All-Star in 2009 when he was fifth in Hart Trophy voting, the Left Wing scored 889 Points in 1,254 Games and represented the United States in nine tournaments, earning Gold in the 2004 World Juniors and Silver in the 2010 Olympics.

Joe Pavelski:  An NCAA Champion at the University of Wisconsin, Pavelski played 18 years in the NHL; 13 with San Jose and five with Dallas, and accumulated 1,068 Points over his career.  A four-time All-Star and one-time Second Team All-Star, Pavelski received Frank J. Selke votes in 14 of his NHL campaigns.  Pavelski was part of the 2010 Olympic Team that won the Silver Medal.  How can a man nicknamed “Captain America” not be in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame!

Scott Gomez:  From Alaska, Gomez won the 2000 Calder Trophy and also helped the New Jersey Devils win two Stanley Cups.   Accruing 756 Points and two All-Star Games, Gomez also played for the New York Rangers, Montreal, San Jose, Florida, St. Louis, and Ottawa.  For the United States, Gomez played in four tournaments.

Tara Mounsey:  Playing collegiately at Brown, where she was the ECAC Rookie of the Year, Mounsey represented the U.S. multiple times and was a member of the 1998 Olympic Gold Medal Team. 

Bruce Bennett: Bennett is a renowned sports photographer who has captured more than 2.5 million images of NHL action.

We at Notinhalloffame would like to congratulate the United States Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

The NHL never waits. New blood, new champions, new hype. In a league lit by flash and youth, age is supposed to be an anchor—not a life raft to new glory. Yet, through the first weeks of the 2025-26 campaign, one man has smashed every grim prediction with defiance. Sidney Crosby, the 38-year-old icon with three Stanley Cups and plenty of miles racked up, has set Pittsburgh alight with an opening run that’s as dramatic as it is improbable.  

Heading into the season, the Penguins were cast off as an afterthought, a rebuild waiting to happen. 16 games and 20 Sid the Kid points later, Pennsylvania's finest are somehow second in the Metropolitan Division, but the online betting sites remain unconvinced. Despite Crosby's heroics, the latest NHL betting at Bovada odds still list the Penguins as a mighty +800 outsider to win the Eastern Conference this term, the third-longest odds of anybody in the league. 

But Crosby isn't the only NHL icon to age like fine wine. While his renaissance is the current flavor of the league, a few others have also managed to shine in their twilight years. Here's our pick of them. 

Sidney Crosby back to scoring goals for the good guys! ?

pic.twitter.com/fRCVvJKxAS

— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) February 22, 2025

Wayne Gretzky

Start with the polestar: Wayne Gretzky. If you want drama, savor 1995-96, with the Great One straddling L.A. and St. Louis and still orchestrating plays with preternatural vision. At 34, the Great One had already done everything there was to do in the NHL, claiming five Stanley Cups and scoring goals for fun. Even so, that hunger remained, and the Canadian sensation still continued to shine on teams desperate for support. 

Gretzky rang up 259 points across his final three seasons in Tinseltown, despite heading into the twilight of his career. A move to the Blues left a lot to be desired, but Gretzky would return to his very best with the Rangers, with his mind only sharpening, despite his legs slowing. He amassed a stunning 25-point scoring streak at Madison Square Garden, before a 90-point curtain call in his penultimate season at the age of 37. 

No one has mapped the late-career topography the way Gretzky did, showcasing pure skill as an antidote to aging. In a league that recycles stars every spring, his closing chapters remain a master class in adaptation—anticipation replacing acceleration, cerebral poetry over brute force.

Jaromir Jagr

The numbers stagger. Jaromir Jagr, hair flowing, legs like tree trunks, played with physics and probability right into his mid-40s. After Russian exile, Jagr returned at 39, pumping in 54 points for the Flyers. Other players slow; Jagr simply grew more baroque.

His puck protection was folklore—a 220-pound sorcerer spinning defenders away, then unleashing a laser off the half-wall. Teammates half his age marveled. Jagr’s total? 1,921 points, second to Gretzky, each new milestone wrung from experience, will, and a genetic quirk that let him outlast science.

Mark Recchi

Grit and skill. That’s Mark Recchi—a man who didn’t just age with dignity but weaponized it. “The Recchin’ Ball” racked up 1,652 games and 577 goals across seven franchises. In his final five seasons, four topped 50 points, climaxing at 43 with a 14-point playoff run that helped deliver Boston’s first Cup since 1972. 

Veteran mentoring? Certainly. But Recchi’s true signature was chameleonic hockey sense; he tailored his game to fill whatever hole a contender needed—primary scorer, net-front pest, or locker room sage. Young Bruins talk about him in hushed tones: the sage who pushed them over the summit.

Martin St. Louis

How does a player go undrafted, wait until 27 for a regular spot, and then become the embodiment of the clutch playoff phenom? Ask Martin St. Louis. From 35 to 39, he didn’t just maintain—he dominated, averaging over 80 points a season, including a 94-point eruption at age 36. 

At 37, he won the Art Ross in a 48-game lockout sprint. Whether in Tampa—engineering the miraculous 2004 Cup run—or at Madison Square Garden—driving the Rangers to the 2014 Final—St. Louis’ edges, acceleration, and bottomless will rewrote every scouting report. Size, it turns out, is the most overrated stat in hockey.

The Blueline Miracles: Giordano, Gonchar, & McDonagh

Not all renaissances unfold up front. Mark Giordano’s is perhaps the ultimate outlier story: undrafted, toiling in the minors, unremarkable—until, suddenly, a Norris Trophy at 35 behind a 74-point shockwave in Calgary. Years 33 to 37? Fifty-plus points as standard issue. That’s evolution, not luck.

Sergei Gonchar quarterbacked elite power plays into his late 30s, notching 59 points at 34 and 47 at 36, using vision and heavy minutes to outmaneuver younger, faster rivals. He’s a statistical beacon for late-blooming defensemen. Then there’s Ryan McDonagh, once considered a spent force after his Rangers exile, suddenly anchoring Tampa Bay’s blue line amid Cup triumphs, logging brutal minutes, and stabilizing chaos as only a veteran can.

The world of Basketball lost one of its greatest legends when Lenny Wilkens passed away at 88.

Wilkens is one of five men to enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach. 

As a player, Wilkens played at Point Guard and was a nine-time All-Star, who played for St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland, and Portland.  The leader in Assists per Game in 1969-70 was also the runner-up for the 1967-68 MVP.   Compiling 17,772 Points and 7,211 Assists, Wilkens was later named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

During the late stages of his playing career, Wilkens transitioned into a player-coach, and over his long run as a Head Coach, he coached Seattle to its only Championship in 1979 (when the franchise was in Seattle) and had a record of 1,332-1,155.  He was also the Head Coach in Portland, Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto, and New York.  Wilkens won the Head Coach of the Year award in 1994.

We at Notinhalloffame extend our condolences to the family of Lenny Wilkens.

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame has announced eight women who will comprise the Class of 2026.

The eight women are:

Candace Parker:  Known as the “Ace”, Parker is one of the most successful basketball players in history.  A two-time NCAA Champion and two-time John Wooden Award winner at Tennessee, Parker was the first pick in the 2008 Draft, where the Los Angeles Sparks took her.    The Power Forward helped L.A. win the 2016 WNBA Title, and won two MVPs there, and later on would win two more WNBA Titles, one with Chicago and another with Las Vegas.  She also won a Defensive Player of the Year Award, was a seven-time First Team All-WNBA Selection, a three-time Rebounding Leader, a two-time Blocks leader, and was named to the WNBA 20th and 25th Anniversary Teams.  Internationally, she won two Gold Medals (2008 & 2012) for the United States.

Elena Delle Donne:  A NCAA Scoring Champion at Delaware, Delle Donne split her WNBA career with the Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics, winning an MVP each with both teams.  A WNBA Champion with Washington in 2019, Delle Donne was a four-time First Team All-WNBA player, and won Olympic Gold with the U.S. in 2016.

Cheryl Reeve:  The current Head Coach of the Minnesota Lynx, Reeve has held that position since 2010, and has taken her club to four WNBA Titles, while winning two WNBA Coach of the Year Awards.  She also took over as Minnesota’s General Manager in 2017, then as President of Basketball Operations in 2022, and is a two-time WNBA Executive of the Year.  She also boasts an Olympic Gold Medal as the American Head Coach at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Isabelle Fijalkowski: From France, Fijalkowski played two years in the WNBA, but her professional career was mainly in France, where she helped her respective teams win five League Cups.  Internationally, she helped France win the 2001 EuroBasket Gold and Silver in 1993 and 1999.

Amaya Valderomo:  Valderomo played three seasons in the WNBA, all with the Houston Comets, and helped that team win league titles in all three.  Playing the rest of her pro career in Europe, the native Spaniard won eight Spanish League Championships and, for her country, one Gold, one Silver, and three Bronzes at EuroBasket.  She also helped Spain win Bronze in the 2010 Worlds.

Kim Muhl:  Muhl was the Head Coach at Kirkwood Community College, where he won over 1,000 Games.

Barbara Kennedy-Dixon:  Kennedy was a two-time All-American at Clemson, where she was the inaugural NCAA Women’s Scoring Champion (1982).  Her number was retired by the university.

Doris Burke: Burke became not only the most successful female basketball commentator, but one of the most successful basketball commentators, period.

This group of women will be inducted on June 27.

We here at notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending inductees to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.