The New Jersey Devils have plenty of Hall of Famers. However, it's been a very long time since they had a Hall of Famer named. They've had 11 players inducted into the Toronto museum, but the last one was Martin Brodeur in 2018. It seemed like the Devils would get a Hall of Famer in there recently, but the voters have seemed to look the other way.
That did not change on Tuesday when Pavel Datsyuk, Jeremy Roenick, Shea Weber, Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, David Poile, and Colin Campbell all received calls for the Hall. It's an amazing class, with some of the best players of this era and Jeremy Roenick, who had more points than anyone not in the Hall.
Conspicuously absent from there is former Devils star Alexander Mogilny.
We've done this before, and we just have a feeling we will do this again. The Hockey Hall of Fame seems to deprioritize a player who has 1,000 points, scored 40+ goals three times despite playing after the insane 1980s, and had a career-high 76 goals. Here are the players who have had more than 76 goals in a season: Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull. Only three of the greatest players ever were able to beat what Mogilny did in 1992-93 with the Buffalo Sabres.
Mogilny was a five-time All-Star, earning an appearance for all four teams that he played for in his career (Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs) and also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 2003. He did not get a chance to play for an MVP (how did 76 goals not get him there?). Maybe the lack of voting prowess hurt him? Sorry he didn't win your popularity contest (which is the same thing that's happening here).
His journey to the NHL is somehow more impressive than his career. He left the Soviet Union for the United States when it was universally taboo to even consider doing such a thing, especially without the blessing of the Soviets. He conspired with the Buffalo Sabres brass to swiftly skip town after winning the 1989 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. Mogilny began a trend of Russians fulfilling their dreams of playing in the NHL.
Like we said, we've done this before. We'll do it again. It's insane that the Hall of Fame has not given this man, who has the 3rd most goals and 4th most points of any Russian who has played at the NHL level. He's a legend to this game. He deserves to make it, but it seems that the voters feel different. It defies logic at this point.