Class of 2011 is announced this afternoon...

Here is an actual useful list of eligibles from ESPN... Who you got? First-year eligible playersGoaliesEd Belfour Jocelyn ThibaultNon-goaliesStu Barnes Mariusz Czerkawski Andrew Cassels Dallas Drake Travis Green Claude Lapointe Martin Lapointe Trevor Linden Richard Matvichuk Glen Murray Mattias Norstrom Yanic Perreault Geoff Sanderson Scott Thornton Eric Weinrich Glen WesleyOther eligible playersPlayers who have at least 400 NHL goals or 1,000 NHL points, won six Stanley Cups or two Canada/World Cup titles or have won a World Championship, Canada/World Cup and Stanley Cup; the goalies have played at least 500 NHL regular-season games and have won over 250 NHL games or recorded 50 or more NHL shutouts.GoaliesTom Barrasso Don Beaupre Dan Bouchard Sean Burke Lorne Chabot Ron Hextall Kelly Hrudey Arturs Irbe Dave Kerr Mike Liut Andy Moog Gilles Meloche Felix Potvin Mike Richter John Ross Roach Tommy Salo Rogie Vachon John Vanbiesbrouck Mike Vernon Non-goaliesTony Amonte Dave Andreychuk Ralph Backstrom Matthew Barnaby Brian Bellows Peter Bondra Pavel Bure Vincent Damphousse Eric Desjardins Ray Ferraro Doug Gilmour Alexei Gusarov Larry Hillman Phil Housley Dale Hunter Tomas Jonsson Valeri Kamensky Steve Larmer John LeClair Eric Lindros Hakan Loob Kevin Lowe John MacLean Shawn McEachern Scott Mellanby Rick Middleton Alexander Mogilny Mats Naslund Bernie Nichols Joe Nieuwendyk Adam Oates John Ogrodnick Fredrik Olausson Brian Propp Claude Provost Stephane Richer Mike Ricci Bobby Smith Brent Sutter Jean-Guy Talbot Dave Taylor Steve Thomas Rick Tocchet Pierre Turgeon Garry Unger Rick Vaive Pat Verbeek Doug Wilson Scott Young Notable women playersShirley Cameron Cassie Campbell Geraldine Heaney Dawn McGuire Manon Rheaume Fran Rider France St. Louis

Since you can only vote for four, for my part, I would vote:1. Joe Nieuwendyk2. Doug Gilmour3. Adam Oates4. Dave AndreychukThe next most deserving in my unscientific opinion5. John LeClair6. Pavel Bure7. Ed Belfour8. Pierre Turgeon9. Peter Bondra10. Tony Amonteand 11. Rick Middleton (homer pick as a Bruins fan)

Spheniscus wrote:Since you can only vote for four, for my part, I would vote:1. Joe Nieuwendyk2. Doug Gilmour3. Adam Oates4. Dave AndreychukThe next most deserving in my unscientific opinion5. John LeClair6. Pavel Bure7. Ed Belfour8. Pierre Turgeon9. Peter Bondra10. Tony Amonteand 11. Rick Middleton (homer pick as a Bruins fan)

I like the list. I think Belfour is probably the best first-year candidate, but I don't think he was good enough to be first-ballot.

Here's mine:1. Dave Andreychuk 2. Joe Nieuwendyk3. Adam Oates4. Doug GilmourOthers:5. Ed Belfour6. Theo Fleury7. Eric Lindros8. John LeClair (possibly my fav. all time player)9. Pierre Turgeon10. Phil Housley11. Mark Howe12. Reggie Leach

Well Ziggy, you got four of your twelve.Nieuwendyk, Gilmour, Belfour, and suprisingly to me Mark Howe are all in this go round. No arguments with the first three as I think they all deserve to be in. And no real argument with Howe, who has the stats to belong even if I think there are several better candidates up this year. He probably was the best defenseman on the list not in the Hall. With the coming classes though, it is going to be tough for any of the guys who didn't get in this year to get in next year. This is what happens when you have a class of Dino Ciccerelli only. The backlog starts and it takes forever to get through everyone.

That said, the Hall did get #4, 5, 6, and 7 off of our list. So that is a pretty good day for them.

Yeah, well my prediction for 2012 is Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Adam Oates, Dave Andreychuk, and Pat Burns. I figure if Nieuwendyk can wait one year so can Sundin and Roenick.