Yzerman, Lidstrom Enter Hall

Olympic Gold Medalists Nicklas Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman are both Stanley Cup-winning captains for the Detroit Red Wings have finally entered a level of play they truly deserve. They will officially enter the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

The federation says “the 2014 class also includes Soviet Union Olympic champion teammates Vyacheslav Bykov and Andrei Khomutov, plus Ruslan Salei of Belarus, who tragically died in a 2011 airplane crash which killed an entire Russian hockey team.

The IIHF says the induction ceremony will be held in May at the world championships in Belarus.

Yzerman helped Canada win the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic gold and Lidstrom scored the decisive goal for Sweden in the 2006 Turin Olympic final.

Bykov won 1988 and ’92 Olympic golds, five world championships and coached Russia to two world titles. Khomutov won three Olympic golds and six world titles.

Steve was born May 9,1965 and played his entire career with the Wings and at the young age of 21 was named Captain of the Wings.

July 3/06, he officially retired and finished his career ranked as the sixth (6th) all-time leading scorer in NHL history, managing a scored a career-high 155 points (65 goals/90 assists) in 1988-89.

This has since been bettered only by Wayne Gretzky and  Mario Lemieux and his # 19 jersey was (officially) retired on January 2, 2007 during a pre-game ceremony at Joe Louis Arena in the motor city – Detroit.

On November 4/08, he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and also became an honoured member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 in his first year of eligibility, inducted alongside (2001–02) Red Wing teammates Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille.

Nicklas Lidstrom was born on April 28, 1970 and played for 20 years in the NHL and all were for the Wings.

He was the first European-born and trained NHL captain to win the Stanley Cup as well as the first European player named playoff MVP.

He is also the all-time leader in games played with only one NHL team and by a European-born player and he never missed the postseason in any of his 20 NHL seasons.

Congrats to both players. Well deserved!!