Considering that the highest season points output for Ray Whitney is 83, it is incredible that he became the 79th player in NHL history to hit the 1,000 mark in a career.  This shows that he is very durable, underrated as many have claimed, and as many have stated, an asset on the NHL roster. The problem was that at no point in his career was he good enough for a Canadian Olympic or World Cup roster. Whitney was a good player, but if he was not good enough throughout his career to represent Canada at the world’s biggest tournament, how can he be a legitimate Hall of Famer?  Anyone with over 1,000 NHL career points might be discussed.

A long-tenured player for the New Jersey Devils, Patrik Elias established himself as one of the top players ever to play in the Garden State. Elias would progress to a 1,025-point career, and anyone who does that (especially after the dead puck era) is at least in the conversation for the Hall of Fame. Just how deep that conversation goes is yet to be determined.

While Nikolai Khabibulin actually has a losing won/loss record in the NHL, nobody can say that he did not have a very good career in the National Hockey League.  The “Bulin Wall” may never have been considered the top goaltender in the league (or maybe even in the top three), but he was always better than most of his peers and did backstop the Lightning to a Stanley Cup, becoming the first Russian to do so. Throw in the fact that he also had an excellent performance leading the Russians to the Olympic Gold Medal, and you have the makings of a fringe candidate for the Hall of Fame.

It took a while before Miroslav Satan found his groove in pro hockey, but once he did, he emerged as one of the scoring stars for the Buffalo Sabres in the late ’90s. Satan was good, but leading Buffalo in scoring still did not place him among the NHL's elite in that category. Possibly his most significant highlight in hockey was leading Slovakia to the World Championship in 2002. He also got a Stanley Cup Ring with the Penguins, but was not among the team leaders.  Satan would finish his career playing in Europe, and he represented Slovakia in the World Hockey Championships an astronomical 14 times.