Two Canadian Olympic gold medalists were elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. Paul Kariya of Vancouver, British Columbia, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and Danielle Goyette of St-Nazaire, Quebec, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin were two of seven elected.
Kariya and Goyette will be joined by three other Canadians–Mark Recchi of Kamloops, British Columbia, Dave Andreychuk of Hamilton, Ontario and Clare Drake of Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Kariya had 989 points in 989 games with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues. A two-time Lady Byng Trophy winner, Kariya also won a silver medal for Canada in men’s hockey at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer.
Goyette meanwhile was not only excellent for Canada at the Olympic Winter Games, but the Women’s World Hockey Championship as well. She was part of eight Canadian teams that won a gold medal. Since her retirement from hockey, Goyette has stayed involved in hockey as she is the head coach of the University of Calgary Dinos women’s hockey program.
The other two electees are Teemu Selanne, who has a Canadian connection because he played for the Winnipeg Jets, and Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of the Boston Bruins. Like Selanne, Recchi and Andreychuk also played for Canadian teams in the NHL. Andreychuk was with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Recchi was with the Montreal Canadiens.
