HHOF inducts 7 new members

The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted its seven newest members during a ceremony in Toronto on Monday night. The list includes Shea Weber, Jeremy Roenick, Pavel Datsyuk, Natalie Darwitz, and Krissy Wendell-Pohl in the Player category and Colin Campbell and David Poile as Builders. 

Weber had a storied career both for Team Canada and in the NHL. In the former category, the imposing blueliner was a winner at every level. He helped his country win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, won a gold and silver at the only two IIHF Ice Hockey World Champiomships he played (2007, 2009), and won gold with the 2005 World Junior team. The native of Sicamous, British Columbia was also part of Canada’s championship team at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Known for his ferocious slap shot, Weber also logged 1,038 NHL games with Nashville and Montreal and took the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup finals during the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season.

“The two things that have been most important about my journey are friendship and mentorship,” Weber said in his speech. “As a kid, I played a lot of road hockey outdoors, dreaming of scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal in Game 7 of the finals, and then doing it all again the next day…I’d like to thank David Poile and Barry Trotz and everyone at the Predators for giving me a chance and believing in me. But some of my favourite times were with Team Canada. There is nothing like the international game and representing your country.”

Darwitz was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame just this past May to honour a career that was second to none on Team USA during her era. From 1999 to 2010, the ace Minnesota forward was a core player, winning three IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships (2005, 2008, 2009) and five silver medals, on top of three Olympic medals (2002 silver, 2006 bronze, 2010 silver).

“I’m so humbled and truly honoured,” Darwitz said. “Being the only girl on my team made me have a target on my back, but that only made me work harder. As my dad always said, ‘They can’t hit you if they can’t touch you.’ To USA Hockey, thank you. I was fortunate enough to play for a decade and have great leaders on the team like Cammi Granato, who showed me what true leadership is all about. And I was also fortunate enough to start with Krissy Wendell. We were linemates for many years even though we were very different people. I learned so much from all of my teammates, and I wouldn’t be…