Keith\u00a0Tkachuk\u00a0waited more than a decade and a half from\u00a0the\u00a0end\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0NHL\u00a0playing career\u00a0to\u00a0get\u00a0the\u00a0call from\u00a0the\u00a0Hockey\u00a0Hall\u00a0of\u00a0Fame.<\/p>\n
When it finally came,\u00a0the\u00a0timing only gave\u00a0his\u00a0family more reason\u00a0to\u00a0celebrate.<\/p>\n
Tkachuk\u00a0was\u00a0elected\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Hall\u00a0of\u00a0Fame\u00a0on Monday, less than 24 hours after his sons became\u00a0teammates\u00a0when\u00a0Brady was traded\u00a0from Ottawa\u00a0to\u00a0Florida, joining older brother Matthew.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0patriarch, nicknamed \u201cWalt,\u201d\u00a0Tkachuk\u00a0is\u00a0part\u00a0of\u00a0a player class that includes centre Patrice Bergeron, who won\u00a0the\u00a0Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and\u00a0the\u00a0Selke Trophy as\u00a0the\u00a0league’s top defensive forward six times, and goaltenders Carey Price from Montreal and Pekka Rinne from Nashville.<\/p>\n
U.S. women\u2019s\u00a0hockey\u00a0pioneer Cindy Curley and executive Brian Burke also are set\u00a0to\u00a0be inducted on Nov. 9 at a ceremony in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Tkachuk\u00a0was one\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0premier power forwards\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0era, playing in\u00a0the\u00a01990s and 2000s as part\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0first great generation\u00a0of\u00a0American pro players. He recorded 1,121 points in 1,290 games, counting\u00a0the\u00a0playoffs, with Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis and Atlanta, and was part\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0U.S. team that won\u00a0the\u00a01996 World Cup\u00a0of\u00a0Hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was blessed\u00a0to\u00a0play in\u00a0the\u00a0greatest sports league in\u00a0the\u00a0world,\u201d\u00a0Tkachuk\u00a0said. \u201cThrough good times and bad times, it was always\u00a0the\u00a0best experience imaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bergeron, who spent\u00a0his\u00a0entire career with\u00a0the\u00a0Bruins, was chosen in\u00a0his\u00a0first year\u00a0of\u00a0eligibility. Price and Rinne were selected in their second, with Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind’Amour among those passed over again.<\/p>\n
Price and Bergeron played together on Canada’s 2014 Olympic gold medal-winning team. Bergeron also won gold in 2010.<\/p>\n
Curley skated in\u00a0the\u00a0first International Ice\u00a0Hockey\u00a0Federation Women’s World Championship in 1990. Her 11 goals, 12 assists and 23 points in five games remain single-tournament records.<\/p>\n
Burke won\u00a0the\u00a0Stanley Cup as Anaheim’s general manager in 2007, one\u00a0of\u00a0several front-office stops for him, along with time spent as\u00a0the\u00a0NHL’s director of hockey operations. Burke also took on a leading role in\u00a0hockey’s Pride efforts\u00a0and was a longtime advocate\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0women’s game, including a stint as executive director\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Professional Women’s\u00a0Hockey\u00a0League Players Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keith\u00a0Tkachuk\u00a0waited more than a decade and a half from\u00a0the\u00a0end\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0NHL\u00a0playing career\u00a0to\u00a0get\u00a0the\u00a0call from\u00a0the\u00a0Hockey\u00a0Hall\u00a0of\u00a0Fame. When it finally came,\u00a0the\u00a0timing only gave\u00a0his\u00a0family more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-754663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}