The real answer to the trivia question of who was the first Goalie to wear a mask (he wore a leather mask for five games in the 1929-30 season), Clint Benedict was the man whose style caused the NHL to allow goaltenders to not have to remain standing. Benedict would often “accidentally” fall to his knees to stop a puck, so much so, that he was dubbed by rival fans in Toronto as “Praying Benny” due to the amount of time he was on his knees.

A career player with the Montreal Victorias, Blair Russel was a star Left Wing who helped the Montreal Victorias defend the Stanley Cup at the turn of the century. Russel averaged multiple goals per game for the Victorias and was a stalwart for the team in an era where player movement was actually more common than today. Russel resisted all offers to turn professional, and retired in 1909 though he likely could have continued to play and be effective.

A career professional with the Chicago Black Hawks, Bill Mosienko may not have won a Stanley Cup in Chi-town, but he was an excellent forward who played in multiple All Star games. Mosienko was also a very classy player (he only ever had one fight in his NHL career and was rewarded with the Lady Byng Trophy in 1945. Winning that accolade was nice, but he also a perennial fixture on the annual points table and was one of the better players in Chicago when they were not exactly a league power.

A somewhat dubious induction in our eyes to the Hockey Hall of Fame little seems to be known about Arthur Farrell (even on the Hockey HOF’s own website). Farrell was however a two time Stanley Cup champion with the Montreal Shamrocks and scored a good amount of goals in those series. Farrell did however go on to write three “How-to” books on how to play Hockey which were held in high regard; perhaps that was the main reason he got inducted.