The Hall of Fame committee met today to decide on the 2018 inductee class. Once again, Sergei Zubov was left off the list of honorees.
The former Dallas Stars defenseman has been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 2013 after his 2010 retirement but has missed out every year.
This year’s class includes New Jersey Devils superstar goalie Martin Brodeur as an easy first-ballot pick, Martin St. Louis in his first year of eligibility as well, Jayna Hefford, and Alexander Yakushev. Willie O’Ree and Gary Bettman will also be inducted as builders.
With Zubov missing from the list for the sixth year, let’s take a look at his resume once again and contemplate why he’s still not getting inducted.
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Zubov boasts an impressive resume that includes two Stanley Cups and four All-Star Game selections. He won his first cup with the New York Rangers in 1994 and his second in Dallas in 1999. He also had international success, winning gold in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. He won gold in 1989 and silver in 1990 at World Juniors as well.
Over 1068 regular season NHL games, Zubov racked up 771 points, averaging 0.72 points per game despite playing in the dead puck era. During his sophomore season alone, he had a career-high 89 points with the Rangers. He’s 20th in the all-time defensemen scoring in the regular season. There are only three other players in the top 20 that aren’t in the hall: Gary Suter, Doug Wilson, and Sergei Gonchar. This was Gonchar’s first year of eligibility.
When it comes to the playoffs, he’s 12th in defensemen scoring and is the highest player not in the hall. Add that to his two cups, and there should be no question that he could produce during post-season. The Stars only missed the playoffs twice while he was in Dallas, and he only played 10 games in one of those seasons due to a hip injury.
What Zubov lacks is individual awards. He was a Norris finalist once in his career and was in the top ten in Norris voting seven times over his 16-year NHL career. He finished in a distant ninth place in Lady Byng voting one time and didn’t get much love from the voters other than that. This has really been the biggest sticking point against his induction.
The problem with looking at his individual awards is that he spent his prime going up against Scott Niedermayer, Chris Chelios, Al MacInnis, and Nicklas Lidstrom, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame. Lidstrom is without question one of the best defensemen to ever play the game and the fact that he won seven Norris trophies during Zubov’s career shouldn’t mean Zubov can’t go in the hall.
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Zubov has been woefully underrated by the Hall of Fame voters, so it’s not surprising that he didn’t make the cut yet again this year. Fans will have to wait a whole year to go through this all over again. Same time again next June, everyone?