Do Lightning Stars Lecavalier and Richards Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Between 1998 and 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning drafted exactly two impact NHL players. They took them in the same year and even from the same team. Both would be key pieces in the only Stanley Cup win in Bolts franchise history. This summer, both players chose to retire after enjoying illustrious careers spanning more than 1,000 games in the NHL.

Now the question is whether or not they belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The numbers are curiously similar at first glance. Lecavalier played 1,212 regular season games and posted 949 points. Richards appeared in 1,126 contests—86 fewer games played—but finished almost as strongly in total scoring with 932 points.

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Where Richards holds a major edge is in playoff scoring. He made playoff appearances for five different franchises, putting up 105 points in 146 games. Lecavalier has only played 12 playoff games in the last five seasons and managed just four points over that span. Richards had 10 points more than Lecavalier in 2004 when both players starred in Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup Final win.

Those who value sustained success also have some reason to rate Richards higher. He scored 21 goals and 62 points as a rookie in 2000-01, finishing second in that season’s Calder race. His last 20-goal/50-point campaign came 12 seasons and 13 years later. All told, he topped 20 goals 10 times and 50 points on 11 occasions.

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Lecavalier wasn’t quite as good at holding value over time, but at his peak he was more accomplished than Richards. In 2006-07 he scored 52 goals, leading the league in that category. He also topped 100 points, an achievement that his longtime teammate never managed. However, his final 50-point season came at the age of 30. Moreover, he retired with two years remaining on his contract—a concession which made a midseason trade to Los Angeles possible, per NHL.com’s Curtis Zupke.

The selection committee for the Hockey Hall of Fame doesn’t use explicit criteria for picking honorees, but its past selections offer us a window into what qualities distinguish the players it picks from those it excludes.

Iain Fyffe’s work in this field represents the gold standard. He’s spent years looking at which players qualify for the Hall and which ones don’t and has developed a system which projects eventual Hall of Fame inclusion based on what the committee has done in past years. It’s laid out in the 2014 edition of Hockey Abstract.

At the top of his list: being named to the end-of-season NHL All-Star Team. That’s a problem for both Lecavalier and Richards.

Richards was never deemed to be one of the two best players in the league at his position in any given season. He got 33 votes for the centre position in 2003-04, including one first-team vote but ultimately finished in fifth place, just behind Robert Lang. Lecavalier, meanwhile, has one second-team nod, just edging out Joe Thornton in 2006-07.

Regular season goals and points are also key indicators, with the HHOF committee valuing goals over assists.

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Richards again takes it on the chin relative to Hall of Fame players by these metrics. He has less than 300 career goals, ranking him 173rd among forwards since the NHL’s expansion from six teams back in 1967. That puts him three goals back of two still-active players: Scott Hartnell and Jason Spezza. He fares better by points (78th), but he’s still almost 100 back of Alexei Kovalev. Lecavalier is in the same range.

If there’s a saving grace for Lecavalier, it may be goal count; he’s topped the 400 mark on his career and ranks 76th in NHL history. Even that may not be good enough, though; it puts him in the same range as Kovalev and Arnott, and those players aren’t considered shoo-ins.

Cup wins and individual awards also seem to coincide with HHOF admission, and both Lecavalier and Richards have some items in their favour here. Lecavalier’s trophy case includes a Maurice Richard Trophy and King Clancy humanitarian award, while Richards’ has a Conn Smythe and Lady Byng. Lecavalier has one Cup ring; Richards has two.

Lecavalier would have a better case if his prime had lasted a little longer. He only ever topped the 40-goal or 80-point mark twice, in two consecutive seasons, and then his offensive peak was gone; he wouldn’t get so much as a single all-star vote after his 28th birthday.

Richards sustained longer and had a better two-way reputation, but he lacked Lecavalier’s offensive flash. The former put up double-digit goal totals in 15 of 15 seasons but never hit the 30-goal mark, and even in his very best season he topped out as the league’s No. 7 scorer.

There’s no question that both Richards and Lecavalier were very good players and important pieces of very good teams. But given some of the other candidates still waiting to be enshrined, it’s difficult to make a case for either of them to be in the Hall of Fame.

Statistics courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.