Analyzing Patrik Elias’ Hall Of Fame Chances

Patrik Elias skated for the last time in a New Jersey Devils uniform on Saturday night. His Hall of Fame credentials provide an interesting argument after 19 seasons in the NHL.

It was the most emotional game of the season. A season that saw many more ups than downs. A season that ended with the team losing 20 of their final 23 games. A terrible end to a season was forgotten when number 26 hit the ice Saturday night. He took warmups. He got emotional when his family came out to greet him during the opening puck drop. He got the fans going one last time before he went off into the sunset.

Patrik Elias is the best offensive player who will go down as a career Devil. He has 50 more goals than anyone who’s ever played in New Jersey (John MacLean is number two with just 347). He has more than 250 more assists than the second guy on the list (Scott Niedermayer is far behind Elias with 364 assists).

The issue with Elias when it comes to the Hall of Fame, leading the Devils in most offensive categories means nothing when compared to the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and even players like Rick Nash, who already has more career goals than Elias.

His playoff resume is pretty impressive. He has more playoff goals than the likes of Teemu Selanne and Pavel Datsyuk. Unfortunately, he’s still just ranked 70th all time in playoff goals.

He also has two Stanley Cup Championships and four appearances in the final series of the hockey season. He led the team during a transition time when Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer were no longer there to captain the team. His efforts kept the Devils a playoff team all the way until 2010.

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Many fans will point to 2014’s induction of Peter Forsberg as a reason Elias should get in. His 249 goals and 885 points are much less than what Elias put up over his career. However, the two had very different careers and at his peak, he was a 90-100 point per season producer. That’s a number Elias only reached once in his career.

At the end of the day, the numbers don’t seem to add up to see Patrik Elias in the Hall of Fame. He will likely stay on the ballot for years, but continue to fall short. His career was great, there is no denying that, but he fell maybe 100 points short of those real eye-popping numbers.  Because of that, Elias will have to settle for seeing the number 26 live in the rafters of the Prudential Center for all time.

Credit for all stats goes to hockey-reference.com.