One of the most interesting Hall of Fame cases has to belong to that of Adam Foote, a player who was never an All Star in his professional career, and never finished higher than tenth in Norris Trophy voting. Despite this, there is no doubt that Foote carried significant value for every team that he played on and what he did would never really reflect in a boxscore.
Pit Martin is remembered by many for being at the wrong end of a lopsided trade that sent Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield to the Boston Bruins and created a Stanley Cup Championship team, but Martin was a very highly regarded player in his own right. Martin would represent the Chicago Blackhawks in the All Star Game four times and he secured six 60 Point seasons. Overall, he would score 809 Points in the National Hockey League.
It could be argued that Pat Stapleton is one of the better players who seem to have been forgotten in the National Hockey League. He shouldn’t be just a footnote, as he would develop into an excellent point man on the blue line with and the owner of an accurate and rapid slap shot.
One of two players that won the Hart Trophy without being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Al Rollins would win the Hart in 1954, a season in which he actually led the NHL in Losses. Rollins then played for the Chicago Blackhawks, which were then the worst team in the NHL and many considered that the only reason they were competitive in games was because of Rollins. He had won the Vezina and the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior.