Time To Right A Wrong: Hockey Hall of Fame Must Induct Rogie Vachon

LOS ANGELES — Compared to many of today’s goalies who are six feet tall or more, former Los Angeles Kings’ superstar goalie Rogie Vachon is small by comparison, probably around 5-7 (I’m 5-9 and I am taller than Vachon). But despite his relatively small physical stature, Vachon’s place among National Hockey League goalies, past and present, looms large. Based on his performance throughout his sixteen-year NHL career, Vachon is clearly among the elite.

So why, then, has he not been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF)?

When you look closely at the numbers, Vachon certainly deserves to be enshrined among his peers. No one can deny that he was one of the great goalies to ever play the game. Consider that:

During his final year of eligibility in 1998, Vachon was fifth all-time in career wins with 355. Only Glenn Hall (407), Tony Esposito (423), Jacques Plante (434) and former Kings’ goalie Terry Sawchuk (447) had more (all are honored members of the HHOF). Twelve HHOF goalies had fewer wins than Vachon.

Vachon is now sixteenth all-time in career wins, as the likes of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek and others have passed him. But of the fifteen netminders who have won more games than Vachon, only Roy and Fuhr have joined the four goalies mentioned above who are ahead of Vachon in wins and have been inducted into the HHOF.

Nine other goalies who are in the top forty all-time in career wins are honored members of the HHOF despite the fact that Vachon ranks ahead of them. Several other HHOF netminders are not even among the top all-time leaders in wins.

In 1998, Vachon was seventeenth all-time in shutouts with 51. Seven HHOF goalies (Frances Brimsek, John Bower, Gerry Cheevers, Ken Dryden, William Durnen, Billy Smith and Lorne “Gump” Worsley) had fewer shutouts than Vachon.

Today, Vachon is tied for twentieth all-time in shutouts, while Brimsek, Bower, Cheevers, Dryden, Durnen, Smith and Worsley have all been bumped off the list. Indeed, a good bunch of goalies who are honored members of the HHOF are no longer on the all-time shutouts list while Vachon remains.

Vachon also won three Stanley Cups while he played for the Montreal Canadiens (1967-68, 1968-69 and 1970-71). He is a Vezina Trophy winner, having won the award in 1968, sharing it with Worsley, his teammate with the Canadiens. Vachon was also the Vezina runner-up to Philadelphia Flyers great Bernie Parent in 1975. Many have said he should have won the award that season, when he led the league in save percentage (.926) and was second in goals-against average (2.24).

Vachon twice was named as a second-team NHL All-Star (the end-of-the-season honor, not for the mid-season all-star game), in 1974-75 and 1976-77. That same year, he was the named as a first-team All-Star by The Hockey News and The Sporting News.

While he was with the Kings, Vachon was named to the mid-season All-Star team three times (1973, 1975 and 1978). In 1974-75, Vachon and Bobby Orr were the only unanimous selections to the All-Star Game.

Vachon was also named The Hockey News Player of the Year that same season and was runner-up to Flyers star forward Bobby Clarke for the NHL’s Most Valuable Player.

In international play, Vachon led his Canada to victory in the 1976 Canada Cup tournament with a 1.39 goals-against average (GAA), a .963 save percentage and two shutouts in seven games. He was named as the best goalie of the tournament and the Most Valuable Player for Canada.

If you compare Vachon with the star goalies of the same era, Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent, Eddie Giacomin, Gerry Cheevers, Gump Worsley, Tony Esposito and Billy Smith, his numbers might surprise some. Vachon is:

• Third in games played. Only Esposito and Worsley played in more games.
• Second in wins. Only Esposito won more games.
• Fourth in shutouts. Only Giacomin, Parent and Esposito have more.
• Fifth in winning percentage. Only Giacomin, Esposito, Durnan and Dryden were better.

He also led the NHL with a 1.42 GAA in the 1969 playoffs.

And while playing on Kings teams that were usually horrible, Vachon’s numbers were that much more impressive. He earned a 2.86 GAA with the Kings. During the 1974-75 season, he earned an even more impressive 2.24 GAA (a Kings record) and had a .926 save percentage.

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