Jeremy Roenick was getting a coffee when he got the call he once hoped for but some time ago stopped expecting when the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee meets typically in late June.
Tears welled up in his eyes and then down his face as he was rendered unable to pay, to hold the cup or to speak. It was to him an embarrassing but also a wonderful moment to get the word that he’ll be inducted into the hall this November.
“I still can’t believe it,” Roenick said. “I’m sitting here in shock. I’m shaking. I’m sweating. … This means the world to me.”
His lengthy wait is over after more than a decade, as Roenick was unveiled Tuesday as part of the seven-member class of 2024, the first to include two women’s players since 2010. It’s the first class with two U.S. women’s players in the hall’s history: Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl.
The 10th time is the charm for one former first round pick who headline’s this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh has more.
“Hopefully this is a regular occurrence from here on out,” Darwitz said. “There’s so many players of our generation and past generations that have paved the way to get women’s hockey to be where it is today, so hopefully we’re the starting line of that happening every single year, that two female hockey players can get into the Hall of Fame.”
Two-time Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup-winning winger Pavel Datsyuk and former Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber were elected in their first year of eligibility. Longtime executives Colin Campbell and David Poile were chosen in the builder category.
Roenick’s 1,216 points with Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Jose are fourth most of any U.S.-born player. He has been a candidate since 2012 and passed over each year since.
“I actually did not think it was going to happen,” Roenick said on a conference call with reporters. “Having something when you wait for it, and like I waited for it, never knowing if it would happen, it feels like it means more because it hit me really, really hard.”
Datsyuk and Weber were slam dunks to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. Datsyuk dazzled as “the Magic Man” throughout a 14-year career with Detroit in which he excelled offensively and defensively and afterward won also won Olympic gold with Russia in…
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