It’s Ridiculous That Chris Osgood Is Still Not In The Hockey Hall Of Fame

It has been 12 years since former three-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender Chris Osgood has hung up his skates and retired from the NHL. For the 9th year of his retirement, Osgood did not get a call to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Why?

Osgood was drafted in the 3rd round by the Detroit Red Wings in 1991 and got his start with the team in the 1993-94 season where he appeared in 41 games, winning 23 of them. He posted a 2.86 Goals Against Average to go along with his .895 save percentage. Not bad for a 21 year old rookie. His season was good enough to place him 5th in the voting for the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the year. The next four seasons would see Osgood place in the top 10 for the Vezina Trophy in three of those years, including the 1995-96 season where he placed 2nd behind Washington Capital goaltender Jim Carrey. Osgood certainly had a claim to be the Vezina trophy winner that year, and I’m probably not writing this article if he wins. Osgood was never considered to be the top goalie in any of the years he played and has gone against his case for making the Hall. Osgood finshed his career with 401 wins, currently 13th all time and ahead of many goalies who are already in the Hall of Fame.

2023 ended up being the year of the goalie, as Henrik Lundqvist, Tom Barrasso, and long time teammate of Osgood’s, Mike Vernon were elected in this year’s class. The eye test tells us that Lundqvist had a better career than Osgood and from 2010-2014 was arguably the best goalie in the game. Lundqvist also was a winner of the Vezina, which alluded Osgood. Barrasso was also a Vezina winner in the 1983-84 season which happened to be his rookie year when he brought home the Calder as well. Mike Vernon never won a Vezina but was the Conn Smythe winner for MVP of the playoffs in the 1996-97 season. Osgood watched from the bench as Vernon led the Detroit Red Wings to their first Stanley Cup in 41 years even though Osgood got the majority of the regular season starts and posted better numbers than his counterpart during the regular season.

Osgood got a chance in the 1997-98 season to do what Vernon did, and that was lead the Wings to a Stanley Cup title while being the number one goalie in the playoffs.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Osgood posted his 2nd best career save percentage with a .917 while winning 33 games. He had a miniscule 2.21 GAA with 6 shoutouts. This was good enough for 7th in Vezina voting. Osgood improved on both his GAA and save percentage once the Wings made it into the playoffs, posting a 2.12 GAA to go with his .918 save percentage and a 16-6 record. Had captain Steve Yzerman not had the glorious playoff run he had, Osgood probably gets the Conn Smythe in that playoff season.

At Age 36 Osgood showed the world why the Red Wings brought him back to Detroit when he led the Wings to another Stanley Cup title, his 3rd and final cup with the team. Osgood was supposed to be the backup to Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek but after two consecutive losses to the Nashville Predators, Coach Mike Babcock made the switch and the Wings never looked back. Osgood posted even better numbers in this cup run with a 2.01 GAA and a .926 save percentage. Osgood blanked the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two games of the series and eventually the Wings knocked off league darling Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in 6 games.

Most naysayers will point to Osgood’s lack of hardware as well as the fact that he had a dream team around him that scored many goals where he didn’t have to be spectacular to win. The Wings had many stacked teams from 1994 all the way until their last playoff appearance in 2016. They also had goalies like Hall of Famers Mike Vernon and Dominik Hasek and did not win the cup every year. If it was that simple, the Wings would have many more cups. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are the hardest tournament to win in all of sports. Osgood left the game with 129 career playoff wins. This is good enough for 9th all time amongst goalies. Chris Osgood did not become a three-time Stanley Cup Champion by accident.

It seems to me that the Hall of Fame definitely favors players who rack up trophies in their careers during peaks as opposed to players who were constantly a good over a long period of time without having that peak where they won a trophy of some sort. Alexander Mogilny is another great example of this. Mogilny never won a Hart Trophy, or Selke, but was undeniably one of the greats during his main run in the 1990s. Mogilny had 573 goals in 990 career games played. Only Hall of Famers Maurice Richard, Mike Bossy, and Mario Lemieux have more goals than Mogilny while playing in less than 1000 career NHL games. Mogilny, like Osgood is still waiting for a call that may never come from the Hall and its a shame.