2009 NHL Hall of Fame Class a tribute to NHL '94

The NHL’s 2009 Hall of Fame class was announced last week. With the exception of Lou Lamoriello, all inducted parties were stars on the ice and in our Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis video game consuls.

Yes, NHL ‘94 is the holy grail of one-timers in hockey video games. And it meticulously broke down our newly inducted Hall of Famers some 15 years ago.

Brett Hull

Overall, Hull had an 81 rating. While that might seem low to some, remember that Bob Bassen had a rating of 57 on the game and as we all know, Bob Bassen is the greatest hockey player that ever lived. Hull was most effective as the shooter off one-timer passes from center Craig Janney, or the underachieving young center named Nelson Emerson. Irony: the winger opposite Hull on Line 1 (after manual edits, of course) was none other than Brendan Shannahan. Shannahan ‘allegedly’ slept with center Craig Janney’s wife, proving Janney was a generous, team player - and one hell of a passer. ###MORE###

Brian Leetch

Honestly, I was never a huge fan of video game Brian Leetch. He was slow, a poor checker and always seemed to have an inferior slapshot compared to fellow defenseman James Patrick. However, Leetch was a solid offensive mind from the backline and Lord knows there is no pricetag you can put on ice-intelligence for video game athletes.

Luc Robitaille

Luc was one of the best left wingers of the era and it translated into video game land. His presence on the left side meant your opponent would overlook right-winger Thomas Sandstrom. Note to all opponents: don’t overlook Thomas Sandstrom’s one timers. They’re lethal regardless of if the pass comes from Robitaille, Gretzky or Rob Blake.

Steve Yzerman

When it comes to video game leadership, there is no one better than Yzerman. He had wicked speed, a hard shot and great puck handling skills. If you utilized your manual editing skills, you could fill Yzerman’s line with Sergei Federov and Dino Ciccarelli on the wings, along with Paul Coffey and Nik Lidstrom or Steve Chiasson (RIP) on the backline. In other words, Steve Yzerman was NHL ’94’s best captain, which speaks volumes to the truth.

No word if Ron Barr will be inducting the above mentioned players, but all four are certainly deserving of his time.

Ron was never short on words, anyway.

Note: player cards and Ron Barr profile picture are property of NHL94.com. Yes, that site really exists.

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