Jeremy Roenick was having coffee when he got a call he once expected but hadn't expected for some time: The Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee usually meets in late June.
Tears welled up in his eyes and ran down his cheeks. He couldn't pay, he couldn't hold the Cup, he couldn't speak. For him, hearing the news that he'd be inducted in November was an embarrassing moment, but also a wonderful one.
“I still can't believe it,” Roenick said. “I'm sitting here in shock. I'm shaking. I'm sweating. … This means the world to me.”
Ending a long wait of more than a decade, Roenick was announced on Tuesday as one of seven members of the Class of 2024. For the first time since 2010, two women will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. For the first time in the Hall of Fame's history, two American women players, Natalie Darwitz and Chrissy Wendell-Paul, will be inducted.
“Hopefully, going forward, this becomes a regular occurrence,” Darwitz said. “There are so many players from our generation and past generations that have paved the way to get women's hockey to where it is today, so hopefully we can be at the starting line of having two women's hockey players inducted into the Hall of Fame every year.”
Two-time Stanley Cup-winning winger Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings and former Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber were selected in their first year of eligibility, while longtime executives Colin Campbell and David Poile were selected in the builder category.
Roenick has a combined 1,216 points with Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Jose, fourth-most among U.S.-born players. He has been on the ballot since 2012 but has missed out every year since.
“I actually didn't think it was going to happen,” Roenick said on a conference call with reporters. “Things happen while you wait, and I was waiting not knowing if it was going to happen, but it really, really hit me, so it feels like it makes more sense.”
Datsyuk and Weber were both first-choice Hall of Fame candidates, with Datsyuk shining as the “Magic Man” during his 14-year career in Detroit, excelling offensively and defensively, and then winning an Olympic gold medal with Russia in 2018 when no NHL players were available.
“Of course I'm excited,” Datsyuk said. “Right now I'm a lucky boy. I'm happy.”
Weber, 38, is still under contract — his rights were transferred from Arizona and are owned by the Utah Hockey Club, formerly known as the Coyotes — but is eligible after a career-ending injury in 2021 ended his playing career after helping Montreal reach the finals. Weber, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Canada in 2010 and 2014, said he screened several calls from Hall, not recognizing the number or expecting the news.
“Obviously I had a great career,” said Weber, who played 11 of his 16 NHL seasons with Nashville and served as captain from 2010 to 2016. “I wish I could have gone on longer, but I just felt like my body was letting me know it was about time and unfortunately it was a tough time. Mentally I felt like I could still compete and contribute, but physically I just didn't have anything left.”
Poile, who drafted and then traded for Weber, is the winningest general manager in league history with stints with the Washington Capitals and Predators and followed in the footsteps of his late father, Bud Poile, a Hall of Fame executive.
“I wish I could have had a little chat with him today,” he said.
Campbell, who spent more than a decade on the selection committee and has worked in senior NHL administrative roles for more than two decades, beginning with his time as manager of the New York Rangers, said he was “pretty shocked” when he got the call.
Darwitz and Wendell-Paul were teammates at the University of Minnesota and on the U.S. national team, where they reached the Olympic finals in Salt Lake City in 2002 and won a silver medal. Wendell-Paul said she was thrilled to learn that they would be inducted together as another testament to the growth and recognition of hockey, especially for women.
“It's incredible,” she says, “to think how far the game has come in such a short space of time. When I think about where I was when I started playing on the boys' team and the opportunities that girls have now, it feels like such a long time ago.”
