The Hockey Hall of Fame will welcome an impressive class of players in 2025: Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton and Duncan Keith, all first-ballot choices; Alexander Mogilny, ending a prolonged wait; and women’s hockey stars in Jennifer Botterill of Canada and Brianna Decker of the United States.
Who will join them in the Class of 2026?
Here’s a look at the most likely men’s and women’s players to next get the call for the Hall, ranked in order of their likelihood for enshrinement. We’ll begin with the former NHL players eligible for the first time next season:
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An extremely easy call for the selection committee. Bergeron won the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward six times, an NHL record. The center was a finalist for the award in 12 consecutive seasons, the longest streak for any player being nominated for an NHL award in league history.
He was a dominant defensive force whether measured by traditional stats or analytics during his 19-year career with the Boston Bruins but was anything but a one-dimensional star. Bergeron had 1,040 points in 1,294 games, including 427 goals. That’s the third-most points for any Bruins player.
From a team perspective, he won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and was a primary reason they made to back to the Final in 2013 — a series against Chicago in which Bergeron played through a punctured lung, separated shoulder, a broken rib and a broken nose — and in 2019. He’s a member of the Triple Gold Club: winning Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014 and world championship gold in 2004. He also won world junior gold in 2005 and the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, all with Canada.
2. Carey Price, goalie (second year)
Price follows in the legacy of great Montreal Canadiens goaltenders such as Hall of Famers Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.
He played all 15 seasons with the Habs from 2007 to 2022 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins (361) in 712 games. He helped Montreal to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final during the NHL’s COVID-impacted season. Price had one masterpiece season in 2014-15, becoming only the seventh player in NHL history to win the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender and the Hart Trophy as MVP in the same season.
Price won Olympic gold in 2014, backstopping Canada in Sochi. He also won gold at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2007 world junior championships.
His candidacy is intriguing,…
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