Rod Brind'Amour not a part of 2023 Hall-of-Fame class

It was announced earlier today that Rod Brind'Amour would not be a part of the 2023 Hockey Hall-of-Fame class despite a more than deserving resume.

Instead, the selection committee selected goaltenders Tom Barrasso, Henrik Lundqvist and Mike Vernon as well as forward Pierre Turgeon along with Woman's Hockey legend Caroline Ouellette and builders Ken Hitchcock and Pierre Lacroix to the HHOF.

The Hurricanes can take a small bit of solace though in that fact that they'll get a tiny bit more recognition in the Hall as Barrasso, a two-time Stanley Cup champion as well as a Calder and Vezina winner, played in Carolina for half a season (2001-02) at the end of his career. He was also a part of the Hurricanes' coaching staff as both a goaltender coach and eventually assistant coach from 2007-2012.

However, amongst the male players inducted, only Lundqvist was the obvious slam dunk candidate in his first year of eligibility. He was one of the top goaltenders of the salary cap era and had ample International hardware despite never winning a Cup.

However, the rest of the NHL player class left much to be desired.

Barrasso is the highest scoring goaltender of all time (48 points) and has the most playoff wins and fourth most regular season wins by an American-born goaltender, however, he was never a top goaltender in his time. His stats pale in comparison to his contemporaries and he benefitted greatly by the teams he was a part of, i.e. the Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr Pittsburgh Penguins.

Mike Vernon is even more of an out of left field selection as there was virtually no support or belief that he was even in consideration as a candidate. 

A two-time cup champion, Vernon was never a dominant player of his time, but did peak at the right moments to help lead his teams to Stanley Cups.

And then there's Pierre Turgeon.

Turgeon is 34th all time in NHL points and in his best season (1992-93) he only finished as high as 5th among the league in scoring (132 points).

His only significant hardware is a Lady Byng trophy in 1992-93, so perhaps his most qualifying trait is the fact that he captained the Montreal Canadiens for two seasons and was born in Quebec.

While cases can certainly be made for these players, the choice to continually omit players like Brind'Amour and Alex Mogilny in favor of these selections is what is astounding.

And that's not even including the fact that, yet again, only a single women's hockey candidate was selected despite the committee being allowed to induct two.

The selection committee's voting is completely shrouded in secrecy with no transparent ballots or information on how they adjudicate players. 

It's a total crap shoot and how are you expected to trust a process in a game like hockey which has continually showed it loves for favoritism over sound judgement?

Maybe one day Brind'Amour will get his time to shine, but with the way this class went and with the current process as a whole, it's seeming less and less likely.