Five Flyers Who Deserve Hall of Fame Consideration

The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its class for 2023. Henrik Lundqvist, Tom Barrasso, Mike Vernon, Pierre Turgeon, Caroline Ouellette were this year’s inductees.  Former Flyers head coach Ken Hitchcock was also inducted along with builder Pierre Lacroix. Every year, there are calls for a number of players to get their call to the hall who have been overlooked.

There are lots of players who are on the borderline that you can make cases for and against. The Philadelphia Flyers have their share of players who were great and could be in the hall. Here are five candidates who could deserve a look.

John LeClair

LeClair was the best left winger in the NHL not named Brendan Shanahan during the 1990s. It also didn’t hurt that he was on one of the greatest lines in NHL history. Three times he scored over 50 goals. But injuries and lockouts took a toll on his career. He finished with 406 goals and 413 assists. The five time all-star ranks 13th in goals by a US born player. He also recently turned his offensive success into a front office job with the Flyers.

Rod Brind’Amour

He was one of the toughest players to ever play the game or don a Flyers sweater. Brind’Amour was a two time Selke Trophy winner, and brought the Stanley Cup home to the Carolina Hurricanes. His 452 goals still rank him as 62nd in NHL history and his 1184 total points place him ahead of hall of famers like: Sergey Fedorov, Daniel Alfredsson, Marion Hossa, and Joe Nieuwendyk.

Rick Tocchet

Tocchet will always end up being a fan favorite. It’s easy to see why. He had a reputation for being tough but he could score. Eight times in his career he scored over 20 goals with two seasons topping 40. He has 952 career points, but he is one of the few people in history who have tallied 400 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes. Among the others is Shanahan.

Tim Kerr

The knock on Kerr is that he didn’t play that long. However, in the 655 games he played, he had 674 points. He scored 50 goals four times in his short career as well as ranking 10th in NHL history in goals per game at 0.565. He also set the NHL single season record for power play goals in a season with 34 in 1985-86. He was the force behind the Flyers teams of the 1980s that fell short in the Stanley Cup finals twice. And if you think he doesn’t deserve induction, his stats are very similar to Cam Neely who also had to cut a career short due to injuries and Neely is in the Hall (363-287-650 for Kerr and 395-299-294 for Neely)

Ron Hextall

Regardless of how you feel for him as general manager of the team, Hexy was one of the best goaltenders in the late 1980s – early 1990s. In 1987, he won a Vezina Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy in a losing effort in the Stanley Cup Finals. He was known for being fiesty and fiery, allowing him to set an NHL record for most penalty minutes by a goaltender in a single season with 113 in 1988-89. He is also the Flyers all-time leader in wins by a goalie with 240. He also scored two goals of his own in a rare feat for goaltenders.