Away from the Jason Spezza trade alarms sounding every hour these days, I think some time and attention is worth giving to Ottawa's first Hall of Famer -- goaltender Dominik Hasek.
Hasek, who backstopped the Senators during the 2005-2006 season, was voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday afternoon. Hasek played just one season with Ottawa, but it was just as impressive as the near-decade run of unbelievable shot-stopping with Buffalo and Detroit.
Brian Stubits at CBS laid out the case for Hasek after the announcement:
From the moment that he officially retired, Hasek was a mortal lock to make it in the Hall of Fame right away. He isn't the most decorated goaltender of all time or even in his era opposite Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur among others, but he might be the best of the bunch. The Dominator starred for years in Buffalo and led the Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup Final where they lost to Modano's Stars.In his prime, Hasek was simply unbeatable in Buffalo. For six straight seasons in the mid-to-late '90s he led the league in save percentage, peaking at .937 in 1998-99. He's in rare company with six Vezina Trophies and with two Hart Trophies as the NHL MVP, the only goalie to ever win the award twice.
In his later years Hasek added the missing piece to the resume with a Stanley Cup in 2001-02 with the Red Wings. He played 23 games that postseason and posted a .920 save percentage. He won a second Cup with the Wings in 2007-08 at the ripe age of 43 but primarily as the backup with little action. He also led the Czech Republic to gold in the 1998 Olympics when he allowed just six goals in six games. There are plenty of reasons why he was a shoo-in and why he has been so often imitated but never duplicated.
The only objection I'd have to that section is the part where the author kind of shies away from calling him the best goaltender of all-time. Thankfully, I have no issue saying it: Dominik Hasek, best goaltender of all-time.
I think the most convincing argument you can make with respect to Hasek (or any player) is how dominant he was against his peers during the same window of play. Which, as Adam Gretz illustrated, is disparate to the nth power.
Of course, in Ottawa, memories of Hasek's brief tenure aren't sparkling. Not that he wasn't the league's best at stopping shots then, too -- the sequence of events that led to his season-ending right adductor muscle injury at the Winter Olympics in Turin caused infinite heartbreak, turning a legitimate Stanley Cup contender into a second-round exit at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres.
At the end of the season, Hasek tried to re-up with Ottawa and take a significant paycut in the process. Ottawa opted to go in another direction.
Thanks for reading!