Wednesday afternoon, the Hockey Hall of Fame released their 2023 class of inductees. The list isn’t bad by any means, but one very deserving player got snubbed from the list, that being former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Alexander Mogilny.
The former member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, and New Jersey Devils has put up a Hall-of-Fame-worthy resume and easily deserves to be in, but for the 14th straight year, he has inexplicably been left off the list.
In his NHL career, Mogilny amassed an impressive 473 goals and 1,032 points in under 1000 games played. A very impressive total, and had he not been faced with numerous injuries during his playing time, there’s a very strong chance he racks up more points and surpasses 500 goals.
On top of that, Mogilny has a Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold, a World Championship (thus being a part of the triple-gold club), as well as a Lady Byng trophy.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Alexander Mogilny Snubbed From HHOF
Mogilny also owns a top-5-scoring NHL season of all time. In the 1992-93 season, as a member of the Sabres, Mogilny racked up a mind-boggling 76 goals in just 78 games. This ranks him tied for fifth all-time for goals scored in one season.
If that’s not a resume worthy of inducting to the HOF, I don’t know what is.
Alexander Mogilny is also an off-ice pioneer of the NHL. He was the first NHL draftee to defect from the then-Soviet Union to come to North America and play in the NHL.
Without Mogilny, how many Russian players would be in the NHL? Would Alex Ovechkin ever play for Washington? Do we ever see Evgeni Malkin play in North America?
The list of amazing Russian hockey players goes on and on.
If Mogilny never comes to North America, the NHL is not even close to being the same as it is today.
Mogilny has has an amazing hockey career and it’s a real shame he has not been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame yet.
The exclusion of Mogilny is hard to fathom because he checks every single box a player should check to get into the Hall of Fame: He is a winner, he is a top scorer, he is one of the best of his era, and to top it off, he’s one of the more influential players to ever live. Even if he wasn’t a superstar, his story alone and the influence it had on players to follow should get him in.
As Toronto Maple Leafs fans love to say, “maybe next year is the year.”