Igor Larionov would have made the HHOF without playing in the NHL, while Glenn Anderson shone on a star-studded Oilers dynasty in the 1980s.
If you were to base your opinion of Igor Larionov strictly on his NHL career, then you would probably be stunned that he is going to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Fact is, he was an NHL journeyman who never even played on his team's top line. It was 12 years with five teams - six if you count his two stops in Detroit - with a mere 169 goals in 921 games, which wouldn't be bad if he were a defenceman, except he played centre. To be fair, Larionov was more of a playmaker and his 475 assists in 921 NHL games were impressive.
But Larionov's induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, along with fellow player Glenn Anderson, linesman Ray Scapinello and executive Ed Chynoweth, stretches way beyond his NHL days. In fact, it could easily be argued he would have been worthy of the Hall of Fame had he never played a game in the NHL. Heck, Vladislav Tretiak got in and he never played in the NHL.
Larionov made his mark on the international scene winning two gold medals at the Olympics, four at the World Championship, one in the Canada Cup and two more at the World Junior Championship. There were a few few silver and bronze medal sprinkled in along the way, too. Three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings was icing on the cake.
Born December 3, 1960, Larionov didn't arrive to the NHL until he was 29, long after he established himself as a world-class player on one of the best lines ever with Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov - the famed KLM Line. They typically played with defencemen Alexei Kasatonov and Viacheslav Fetisov and were known as the Green Unit.
At 5-foot-9 and 170-pounds, Larionov defied the odds and relied on clever survival instincts and a high skill level to not get swallowed up in a league that favoured much larger men. Thus he became known as The Professor.
"First of all, before he ever played a game in the NHL he played on one of the best lines ever in hockey and that, in itself, is noteworthy," said Steve Yzerman, vice-president of hockey operations with the Detroit Red Wings and Larionov's former teammate. "And then he and Slava (Fetisov) were among the first of the Eastern Europeans to join the NHL. He was a trailblazer.
"As a teammate Igor was a very skilled player whose best attributes didn't always show up in his numbers. He was a very humble man, but was a great leader. He had great integrity and wasn't afraid to speak his mind. Other players respected and listened to him."
Anderson also had a substantial international career, but made his mark in the NHL - in particular in overtime in the NHL. The speedy winger scored five overtime winners which ranks third all-time behind Joe Sakic (eight) and Maurice 'Rocket' Richard (six). Anderson's 17 game-winning playoff goals ranks fifth all-time. He won five Cups as a member of the powerful Edmonton Oilers and then helped the New York Rangers end a 54-year drought by winning the Cup in 1994.
It would have been easy for a player to get lost in the shuffle on the Oilers championship teams with the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr on the scene, but Anderson always found a way to stand out in a crowd. It was his blazing speed and drive to the net that enabled him to have his own notoriety on a team full of superstars. Through his 16-year NHL career, Anderson averaged nearly a point per game with 1,099 in 1,129. Not bad.
Of all this year's inductees, there was arguably no more of a sure thing than linesman Ray Scapinello. Scampy, as he is know, officiated 2,500 regular season games and another 426 in the playoffs in an illustrious 33-year career and skated as fast in his final game as he did in his first.
Though he stands only 5-foot-7, Scapinello was a giant in the officiating game. His enthusiasm for officiating was obvious, impressive and refreshing.
In his foreward for the Scapinello autobiography Between The Lines, Scotty Bowman wrote: "Scampy was a constant, a pro, a tip-top official for years and years, and when he was on the ice, I knew I had one less thing to worry about heading into a game."
The late Chynoweth enters the Hall as a builder having made his mark in junior hockey as the first full-time president of the Western Hockey League and having served as president of the Canadian Hockey League for 20 years.