Take a stroll through the Hockey Hall of Fame — or at least a scroll down the list of its inductees — and you’ll be greeted by the names and faces and the many incredible accolades of the players who have propelled the game forward.
Take a look at today’s NHL and you’ll find dozens more who will no doubt land among the legends. But which are locks right now? That’s where this exercise begins.
While it’s tempting to try and project who among today’s active NHLers will skate from the rink to the Hall following storied careers many chapters long, we’re looking at the top candidates who’ve already done enough to secure their spot. The question steering us is: If they retired today, would they be a lock for the Hall of Fame? And for these 13 players, the answer is yes.
Basing this exercise around these parameters means you won’t find some of today’s biggest stars — Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl and Cale Makar, to name a few, could probably use a few more years of excellence (which will no doubt come, and we should all be excited to see what they do).
You will, however, find a heavy presence of dynamic duos, trios, and multi-Cup heroes of the past two decades on this list.
Note: In order to lay a few more ground rules, all players considered here are currently active and under contract with an NHL club. That’s an important distinction, because it rules out players like Jonathan Toews, who has stepped away from the game. We all know he’ll be in the Hall of Fame, but for the sake of simplifying our parameters here, he’s not included on the list.
Sidney Crosby | Pittsburgh Penguins
Gordie Howe. Bobby Orr. Mario Lemieux. Wayne Gretzky. Those were the last four players to have their mandated three-year waiting period waived by the selection committee, following in the footsteps of a handful of other NHL legends before them. The Hall’s board of directors eliminated the right to waive the wait after The Great One’s retirement and induction in 1999, but if ever there was a player capable of convincing those in charge to rethink that quick call to the Hall, it would be No. 87.
Sidney Crosby has won it all, captaining the Penguins to three Stanley Cups, including back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017 and a pair of Conn Smythe Trophies to go with them; two Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies, two Rocket Richard Trophies, three Ted Lindsay Awards, and a collection of golden victories on the world junior, world championship, World Cup, and Olympic stage. He long ago solidified his standing as a first-ballot hall of famer and one of the best to ever play, and at 37, continues to play today at a level few can reach.
Alexander Ovechkin | Washington Capitals
That whole waive-the-wait thing about Crosby’s HOF fate? Ditto for his career-long rival/peer/counterpart in Washington, Alex Ovechkin.
There’s no questioning the Great No. 8’s status as a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee, whenever he decides to call it a career. The only remaining question about Ovechkin’s NHL legacy will be whether or not he can reach the top of the all-time goals list before hanging up his skates — and considering he’s sitting at 853 and just 41 away from Gretzky’s record, the answer is most likely yes.
No one has won the Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s goals leader, more than Ovechkin — he’s claimed it a whopping nine times, which is six more than the next in line (Auston Matthews, three). He’s also won the Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Memorial Trophy three times each, and in 2018 finally reached the pinnacle of the game when he led the Capitals to the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup.
Evgeni Malkin | Pittsburgh Penguins
It takes a special kind of talent to be able to stand out on a team that features the game’s best player. Playing alongside Sidney Crosby for his entire career, Malkin has put together a Hall of Fame career in his own right.
He led the charge to the team’s first Stanley Cup of the Crosby-Malkin era in 2009, just two seasons after being named Rookie of the Year. Soon after, his trophy cabinet grew to include a Hart Memorial Trophy and a Ted Lindsay Award (both won in 2011-12 thanks to a remarkable 109-point campaign) before also playing a starring role in back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.
Patrick Kane | Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings
His longtime captain, Jonathan Toews, is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, too, no doubt, but as noted in the introduction Toews isn’t on this list because he’s not technically an active NHLer right now.
While you won’t see Kane’s name topping any of the Blackhawk’s all-time statistical leaderboards — Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull pretty much have those Original Six franchise records on lockdown — there is no doubt his decade-plus run of success with the club changed the league’s landscape. The decorated goal-scorer propelled Chicago to three Stanley Cups within a six-year time frame, also adding a Conn Smythe, Hart Trophy, and Ted Lindsay Award to his resume in the process. He became the first American-born player to lead the league in scoring in 2015-16 and currently sits second in assists (813) and third in points on the all-time U.S. player leaderboard.
Connor McDavid | Edmonton Oilers
He’s one of just two players on this list without a Stanley Cup — yet! — but this is about right now, not projecting ahead, and McDavid’s impact on the NHL is already great enough to warrant a place in the Hall of Fame. Since his NHL arrival in 2015-16, no one has tallied more assists (647), points (982) or game-winning goals (69) than McDavid, who’s piled up points at an unmatched pace (1.52 per game). Billed as a generational talent before turning pro, he’s more than lived up to the title.
He’s already got five Art Ross Trophies to his name, including three straight from 2020 to 2023, and four Ted Lindsay Awards as well as three MVPs and a Rocket Richard Trophy. And while his Oilers finished 2024 just shy of hoisting the Cup, he was recognized as the top playoff performer, becoming just the sixth player in league history to be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing in the Final.
Steven Stamkos | Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators
There’s no doubt it’ll be jarring to see Stamkos’ name adorn the back of a Nashville Predators sweater this upcoming season after being synonymous with the Tampa Bay Lightning for so long. But it won’t be at all surprising to see him enshrined in the Hall of Fame very quickly after his retirement thanks to his incredible run of success in Florida.
While injuries hindered him at various points in his career and even mostly held the two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner out of his team’s Stanley Cup campaign in the 2020 bubble, he remains one of the league’s most lethal goal-scorers. The captain and face of the back-to-back champs in 2020 and 2021 hit the 40-goal mark seven times, the 50-goal mark twice, and in 2011-12 became just the second player in the salary cap era to hit 60 in a season. No wonder he sits third on the all-time goals list among active NHLers.
Nikita Kucherov | Tampa Bay Lightning
Would Kucherov be as firmly entrenched in this conversation last summer as he is now? He’d certainly be on the brink, considering the way he lit up the league in 2018-19 with a trio of trophies before driving the Lightning to back-to-back championships in the two seasons that followed. The fact he’s set a new standard for skill gives him a strong argument, too, as a player whose influence exceeds even his numbers.
But it’s with a healthy dose of recency bias that he makes this HOF-lock list — his historic 100 assists tally and league-leading 144 points in 2023-24 makes it clear he’s another level, his game worthy of all the praise he gets.
Anze Kopitar | Los Angeles Kings
Kopitar made history in 2006 when he became the first-ever Slovenian player to suit up in the NHL, and he’ll record another first when he gets the call to the Hall. For nearly two decades, the Kings captain has been among the best — and, on many occasions, the best — two-way forwards in the league, with a pair of Selke Trophies to show for it.
He’s the Kings’ all-time leader in games played and assists and ranks second in all-time franchise points. He’s led L.A. in scoring in 15 seasons, as solid a franchise cornerstone as it gets. The Kings don’t have two Stanley Cups without him.
Drew Doughty | Los Angeles Kings
Sure, his contract looks a bit heavy now but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that Doughty’s done some incredible heavy lifting on L.A.’s blue line for the better part of 16 years now. Like Kopitar, the two-time Stanley Cup champion has been a foundational member of the Kings and a perennial presence on every best-of list since he first landed in the league.
But it’s not just the Norris Trophy winner’s NHL resume that gets him the nod on this list — he’s long played a starring role on the international stage, too. He helped propel Canada to gold at the world juniors, the World Cup, and twice at the Olympic Games.
Victor Hedman | Tampa Bay Lightning
There are few defencemen you’d want to build a blue line around more than Victor Hedman, who’s consistently been among the top rearguards in the league for the past decade. The Norris winner and many-times nominee doesn’t just play a physical, forward-heavy game — he’s also got the clutch gene, which was on full display league-wide when he pushed the Lightning to a championship in 2020 with his Conn Smythe-winning performance and again a year later. Few d-men can drive the play like Hedman can — he sits second in cumulative assists among defenders since 2009-10.
Erik Karlsson | Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins
When Karlsson earned the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenceman in 2022-23, he became the ninth player to claim the award three times. The other eight players are enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and Karlsson will be, too, when he hangs up his skates. Even on a list of legends that includes players like Bobby Orr (who won a record eight Norris Trophies), Nicklas Lidstrom (seven) and Paul Coffey (three), Karlsson’s achievements stand out — eleven seasons passed between his first award and the third, which is a league record that also speaks to his impressive longevity.
He set a new standard for offensive defencemen in the cap era, leading all active NHL defencemen in total points (817) and assists (628), and will be enshrined as one of the best offensive d-men to ever hit the ice. And while criticism of his contract and lack of Stanley Cup victory tends to overshadow some of his play these days, there’s no doubting his immense impact on the game — especially during his time captaining the Ottawa Senators.
Marc-Andre Fleury | Pittsburgh Penguins, Vegas Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild
It can be tough sledding for goalies to get into the Hall of Fame, but Fleury’s case is a pretty easy one. The netminder has left a strong legacy everywhere he’s played. While he’s best known for his decade in Pittsburgh, during which time he helped propel the Penguins to three Stanley Cups, his move to Vegas in 2017 was integral in introducing the Golden Knights to an entirely new hockey market, with Fleury serving as the first face of the franchise — not to mention, backstopping them with otherworldly numbers to the Cup Final in the team’s first year on the ice and performing even better in 2020-21 when he was awarded both the Vezina and William M. Jennings Trophy.
Fleury’s one of just four goalies in league history to appear in more than 1,000 games — and considering he’s just four shy of Patrick Roy’s 1,029 GP and 19 behind Roberto Luongo’s 1,044, he’s well positioned to finish his career having played more games than every netminder in league history not named Martin Brodeur (1,266). Fitting, considering Fleury is second only to Brodeur in career wins (561).
Andrei Vasilevskiy | Tampa Bay Lightning
Should we just devote an entire draft class to members of the 2020s Lightning? Maybe so. Even with all the skill that plays in front of him, Vasilevskiy is undoubtedly worthy of a place in the Hall of Fame. The near-perennial Vezina finalist (and winner of the award in 2018-19)
has been one of the best goalies in the game for the better part of the past decade and has the clutch gene to go with it, too — just ask almost anyone who’s tried to put a puck past him in a series-clinching game. No goalie has more playoff victories in the last decade than Vasilevskiy (66), who rightfully won the Conn Smythe Trophy when Tampa Bay took their second straight championship.
