With all due respect to Buddy O’Connor, we are now entering a series of inductees that we are not fond of. O’Connor is the first inductee in the “veteran category”, designed to honor those from previous decades that the Hall may have forgotten. As we have seen the Hall has many of the Original Six era (and prior) already in; and with a few of those being questionable in our eyes, we now have a series of players that we openly ask; If they were not indicted before, why should they be inducted now?

You would think that a five time First Team All Star would have won at least one Norris Trophy, but Brad Park had the misfortune of playing in the same era as Bobby Orr who dominated that award (and Denis Potvin later in his career). Park also had a lot of bridesmaid’s analogies with the Stanley Cup as despite playing for many good teams, he was in the Cup finals three times without winning a ring.

John Ziegler was a controversial figure for some (as is any President of one of the four major North American sports), but it can be easily argued that the NHL was in a better place in 1992 when he resigned than from the year he took over in 1977. He navigated the tough waters of the NHL/WHA merger, the dawn of Soviet players in the NHL and tougher suspensions. His end was not the prettiest, but wouldn’t anybody rather have him still in control over Gary Bettman?

Another key part of the Montreal Canadians dynasty of the 60’s, Jacques Laperriere brought a stable presence on the Habs blue line. He was a player who rarely made mistakes and was able to position himself perfectly to stifle attackers and strip them of the puck. He was not a goal scorer, but had respectable assist totals and was the ignition for many counter attacks. Laperriere won the Norris Trophy in 1966 and was a post season All Star four times. Most importantly, he hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head five times as a player and was a big reason those squads were able to do so.