Way-Too-Early Predictions for the 2027 Hockey Hall of Fame

We're about seven months away from the big announcement.

Still, a cottage industry in every major sport is perpetually debating choices for halls of fame, and B/R's stick and puck types decided to get in on the action with way-too-early player picks for the 2027 class at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The public announcement is made in late June, shortly after the Stanley Cup is awarded to and hoisted by the NHL's newly-minted championship team.

The Class of 2026 included Cup champion player Patrice Bergeron and builder Brian Burke, along with Vezina winners Carey Price and Pekka Rinne, 1,000-point scorer Keith Tkachuk and former U.S. women's team captain Cindy Curley.

We looked at players who've been officially inactive for at least three full seasons, and whittled the list based on each candidate's overall contributions to the game, character, sportsmanship and playing ability before settling on five.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.

Rod Brind'Amour

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Rod Brind'Amour

• Stanley Cup champion (2006, Carolina Hurricanes)
• Frank J. Selke Trophy winner (2005, 2006)
• IIHF World Champion (1994, Team Canada)

It's been more than a decade on the outside-looking-in side of things for "Rod the Bod," but at least the veteran of 20 NHL seasons and nearly 1,500 games as a player has been distracting himself with worthwhile things.

Brind'Amour coached the Hurricanes to the second Cup in franchise history in June, their first since they won it all with him as captain in 2006.

His 1,184 points are better than more than 30 currently enshrined forwards and is the fourth-highest total among players not yet invited to Toronto. It doesn't hurt his 2027 cause that the field isn't crowded with slam-dunk superstars.

Good enough for us.

Johnny Gaudreau

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Auston Matthews (34), Zach Werenski (8) and Matthew Tkachuk (19) celebrate winning Olympic gold with Johnny Gaudreau's Team USA sweater

• Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (2017)
• NHL First-Team All-Star (2022)
• Hobey Baker Memorial Award (2014)

It's the first time on the Hall eligibility list for "Johnny Hockey" and it's hard to imagine that Gaudreau won't corner the market on sentimental voters.

His death in the summer of 2024 jolted the NHL and the hockey world as a whole and his presence was felt during the U.S. run to Olympic gold in 2026.

Are his 243 goals and 743 points—topped by 40 goals and 115 points in 2021-22—across parts of 11 seasons good enough in a typical scenario? Probably not. But this is far from typical.

And a vote for Gaudreau is far from an unreasonable one.

Ryan Getzlaf

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Ryan Getzlaf

• Stanley Cup champion (2007, Anaheim Ducks)
• Olympic champion (2010, 2014, Team Canada)
• World Cup of Hockey (2016, Team Canada)

When it comes to playing a role in significant team accomplishments, few modern players can rival the impact that Ryan Getzlaf made across an 18-year pro career.

But even though the longtime Anaheim Ducks captain never won an individual NHL trophy, he's emerged as a top candidate for induction as he enters his third year of eligibility for enshrinement in Toronto.

More than 1,000 points amassed in more than 1,000 games played will do that for a player, particularly, as mentioned with Brind'Amour, in a year where there are no can't-miss candidates to take the oxygen out of the room.

Duck, Duck... Hall.

Noora Raty

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Noora Raty

• Olympic medalist (2010, 2018, Team Finland)
• IIHF World Championship medalist (2008, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2019, Team Finland)
• NCAA champion (2012, 2013, University of Minnesota)

A maximum of two female players can be selected for induction each year and there's no candidate to join the 15 women enshrined since 2010 who's any more qualified for the honor than Noora Raty.

The 5'5" Finn competed in four Olympics and nine IIHF World Championship tournaments, won two NCAA championships at Minnesota, and had a stellar 2012-13 season with the Golden Gophers in which she went 38-0-0 with 17 shutouts.

She later played professionally in Russia and Canada and was the first female goaltender to play in some of Finland's top men's minor/professional leagues.

Bottom line: If a woman is in the Class of 2027, it's got to be Noora Raty.

Henrik Zetterberg

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Henrik Zetterberg

• Stanley Cup champion (2008, Detroit Red Wings)
• IIHF World Champion (2006, Team Sweden)
• Olympic champion (2006, Team Sweden)

He's not made the Hall in five years of eligibility, but whether Henrik Zetterberg ever makes it he's got an armload of impressive accomplishments.

The Swedish forward won a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal, and an IIHF world championship to become a member of the "Triple Gold Club," with Team Sweden becoming the first to grab the latter two titles in the same year in 2006.

Zetterberg played parts of 15 NHL seasons (all with the Detroit Red Wings) and compiled 960 points across 1,082 games, including career highs of 43 goals and 92 points in a 2007-08 run that ended with a hoisted Cup.

And come summertime, it'll be Hall time for "Hank."