The USA Hockey Hall of Fame has announced that will probably be enshrining NHL veterans Matt Cullen and Kevin Stevens, ladies’s hockey legend Brianna Decker, authentic Chicago Blackhawks proprietor Frederic McLaughlin and the whole lot of the gold-medal-winning 2002 Paralympic Sled Hockey workforce.
Cullen performed in elements of 21 NHL seasons between 1997 and 2019. His profession kicked off with six years in Anaheim, the place he planted his ft as a routine, middle-six centerman and scored 200 factors throughout 427 video games. He was traded to Florida in 2003, serving as the principle return in a deal that delivered Sandis Ozolinsh and Lance Ward to Anaheim. That transfer kicked off the journeyman model that Cullen rapidly turned identified for. He moved groups 5 extra instances earlier than 2010 — together with a quick stint with the Stanley Cup-winning 2006 Carolina Hurricanes. That was the primary of three Stanley Cups that Cullen would hoist; incomes the latter two as a part of Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Cup wins in 2016 and 2017. He performed in two extra seasons after that last Cup win, however in the end determined to hold up the skates in 2019, after recording 1,516 video games and 731 factors within the NHL. Cullen has served as a growth coach for the Penguins ever since.
Stevens was part of Pittsburgh’s different back-to-back Cup wins, serving as an instrumental scorer on the 1991 and 1992 Cup-winning groups. He scored a career-high 54 objectives and 123 factors within the latter season, including 28 factors in 21 postseason video games in the course of the Cup run. It was the headlining yr in Stevens’ decade-long tenure with the Penguins, ended by a 1995 commerce to the Boston Bruins. Like Cullen, the commerce kicked off a journeyman stage of Stevens’ profession — main him by way of one yr in Boston, two in Los Angeles, three with the Rangers and even 23 video games with the Philadelphia Flyers. However Stevens returned residence halfway by way of the 2000-01 season, enjoying in 32 extra video games with Pittsburgh earlier than retiring on the age of 36. He ended his profession with 726 factors in 874 video games — together with two 100-point and two 80-point seasons. Stevens was employed right into a scouting place with Pittsburgh in 2005. He maintains the function to today.
Decker has constructed a resume which may rival the a number of Cup wins of Cullen and Stevens. She’s received gold on each stage, together with twice on the World-U18 Championship, as soon as on the Olympics and 6 completely different instances on the Ladies’s World Championship. Decker’s first style of worldwide play got here on the 2008 World-U18 Championship, when she managed seven factors in 5 video games on the age of 17. She was elevated to the World Championship roster in 2011 and stayed on the lineup by way of 2021. Decker managed a stunning 28 objectives and 68 factors in 44 video games by way of the last decade of Worlds expertise — scoring that was complimented by her 9 factors in 11 video games as a part of three Olympics, and routine point-per-game scoring in professional ladies’s leagues. Her profession ended with only one look on the 2022 Winter Olympics — although she’s joined Group USA as an assistant coach on the final two Ladies’s World U18 Championships.
McLaughlin is the primary non-player on this checklist. He’s as a substitute the person who introduced the NHL to Illinois — buying the rights to a Chicago-based enlargement workforce in 1926. As rumor tells it, McLaughlin determined to call the workforce the “Black Hawks” after the U.S. Military’s 86th Infantry “Blackhawk” Division, the place McLaughlin rose to the rank of Main throughout World Battle I, commanding the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion. McLaughlin had no prior ice hockey enterprise expertise, however he constructed a pipeline between Chicago and the WHL that delivered loads of high-impact execs to the brand new membership. With these investments, McLaughlin was capable of lead his workforce to Stanley Cup wins in 1934 and 1938 — although Chicago has since vindicated his legacy with 4 extra Cup wins. He turned revered throughout the hockey world, even being dubbed, “the most important nut I’ve ever met” by then-Maple Leafs supervisor Conn Smythe, as captured in Blades on Ice: A Century of Professional Hockey by Chrys Goyens and Frank Orr. McLaughlin died on the age of 67 in 1944 — proudly owning the Blackhawks till his demise. He was inaugurated into the Hockey Corridor of Fame in 1963.
Lastly, the 2002 Group USA Paralympic Sled workforce earned a milestone victory with its gold medal. It was America’s first time profitable the occasion, eight years after its inception. They went undefeated by way of six video games, beating out Norway 4-3 within the gold-medal recreation. The lineup was led by Sylvester Flis, whose 11 objectives and 18 factors nonetheless stand as match data. Group USA has since turn out to be the kings of sled hockey, taking residence Gold on the final 4 Paralympics. That legacy started with this membership — and the USA Hockey Corridor of Fame will now be acknowledging that contribution.
