Hall of Fame Class of 2009 announced

Courtesy of the Sports Network

The 2009 inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame were announced on Tuesday and a star-studded cast of four players and one front office stalwart will be inducted come November 9 in Toronto.

Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Luc Robitaille were among the players honored while current New Jersey Devils CEO, president and general manager Lou Lamoriello was elected from the "builder" category.

Yzerman, Hull and Robitaille all won a Stanley Cup together in 2002 while playing for Detroit.

The Hall of Fame's 18-member selection committee permits four player inductees per year. Players eligible are those that have been retired for three seasons.

Yzerman, a 43-year-old who grew up in a suburb of Ottawa, played his entire NHL career for Detroit, leading the Red Wings to three Stanley Cup championships. He retired as the sixth all-time leading points scorer in NHL history with 1,755.

A nine-time All-Star and winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy (1998) for best play in the postseason, "Stevie Y" as he was affectionately known, compiled 692 goals and 1,063 assists during his 22-year career. His best season came in 1988-89 when he recorded 65 goals and 90 assists. He's currently the vice president of the Red Wings.

Hull joins his father, Bobby, in the Hall of Fame. They are the only father- son combination in NHL history to each score 1,000 points. The younger Hull, who is currently the executive vice president of the Dallas Stars, ended his career with 741 goals and 650 assists while playing for Calgary, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit and Phoenix. He has a pair of Stanley Cup championships.

An eight-time All-Star, the 44-year-old Brett Hull was named the MVP of the league with the Hart Trophy in 1991, the year he notched an amazing 86 goals, which today stands as the third-most ever in a single season, only behind Wayne Gretzky (92 in 1981-82, 87 in 1983-84).

Leetch was a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the league's top defenseman. He ended his career with 247 goals and 781 assists in 1,205 games playing mostly for the New York Rangers, although he finished his career in Boston (2005-06). Leetch also played for Toronto and was a fixture on the U.S. Olympic team, participating in three Winter Games. Last year, Leetch was inducted in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

The most-noted team accomplishment for the 41-year-old Leetch came in 1994 when he helped the Rangers end a 54-year title drought with a Game 7 Stanley Cup win over Vancouver. He was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Award, and is still the only American-born winner of the honor.

Leetch, the seventh-highest scoring defenseman in NHL history, is also the last blue liner to reach 100 points in a single season, which occurred in 1991-92 when he compiled 22 goals and an incredible 80 assists. An 11-time All-Star, he is the career assists leader for the Rangers. Not only that, but Leetch is the only player other than Bobby Orr to win the Calder Trophy, the Norris Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Robitaille called it quits after the 2005-06 season, but by then he was the highest-scoring left winger in NHL history with 668 goals and 726 assists over 1,431 games with the Kings, Penguins, Rangers and Red Wings, in an incredible 19-year career.

The 43-year-old Robitaille, a native of Montreal, broke into the NHL as the top rookie, winning the Calder Trophy in 1987 with Los Angeles after notching 45 goals and 39 assists. He went on to become the franchise's all-time leading goal scorer with 557, seven more than Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne.

Lamoriello, in his 21 seasons guiding the Devils' front office, orchestrated New Jersey's three Stanley Cup championships in 1995, 2000 and 2003 after spending 20 years at the collegiate level with Providence College -- first as a player, then as head coach and athletic director. He joined the Devils organization in 1987-88, also having served as head coach for 53 games from 2005-07.