bill hay chris pronger

Head of the 2015 Class

Pronger and Hay to be inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame

Wendy Graves
|
June 30, 2015
|

Team Canada alumnus Chris Pronger and former Hockey Canada president Bill Hay will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2015.

Pronger will be enshrined on Nov. 9, alongside Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Phil Housley, and Angela Ruggiero in the Player category.

Hay was elected in the Builder category. He’ll be joined by Peter Karmanos Jr.

Pronger, a native of Dryden, Ont., made seven appearances for Team Canada on the international stage. As a member of Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, he won a silver medal at the 1991 Phoenix Cup. Two years later he won gold with Canada’s National Junior Team at the 1993 IIHF World Junior Championship.

The defenceman’s first time representing Canada at the senior level – the 1997 IIHF World Championship – ended with a gold medal, as well.

Pronger participated in four straight Olympic Winter Games (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010) and holds the record for most games played (25) by a member of Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team. He served as an alternate captain in his last three appearances and captured gold in 2002 and 2010. Both gold-medal-winning teams have since been inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.

The Hartford Whalers selected Pronger second overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Over an 18-year career he played 1,167 games and recorded 698 points (157 goals, 541 assists) for the Whalers, St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers.

He won both the James Norris Memorial Trophy, as the NHL’s top defenceman, and the Hart Memorial Trophy, as the league's MVP, in 1999-2000, making him the first defenceman to win both awards since Bobby Orr in 1971-72.

In 2007 Pronger won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks and became the 19th member of the IIHF Triple Gold Club (Stanley Cup, Olympic gold, IIHF World Championship gold).

Hay served as president of Hockey Canada in the 1990s. A firm believer in grassroots development, Hay was instrumental in helping build the Canadian Hockey Centre of Excellence model, which has since found its way into the Hockey Canada Regional Centres, hubs of initiation activities for those looking to get in the game.

Hay, along with Murray Costello, then president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), led the discussions and negotiations to merge Hockey Canada and the CAHA into the Canadian Hockey Association (later to be called Hockey Canada) in 1998.

He also played a significant role in working with the Seaman Hotchkiss Hockey Foundation on special projects, including Hockey Canada’s Officiating Program of Excellence, the Ed Chynoweth Internship Program and the National Coach Mentorship Program.

As a player, the Saskatoon, Sask., native spent eight seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year in 1960 and the Stanley Cup the following season.

In 1998 he was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the Hockey Hall of Fame, a role he held until 2013. Hay sat on the Hall’s selection committee for 17 years and on the Board of Directors for 18 years, serving as chairman for 15 of them.

CHRIS PRONGER

Year Team Event GP G A PTS PIM Result
1991 CAN Phoenix Cup 6 3 4 7 16 Silver
1993 CAN World Junior Championship 7 1 3 4 6 Gold
1997 CAN World Championship 9 0 2 2 12 Gold
1998 CAN Olympics 6 0 0 0 4 4th
2002 CAN Olympics 6 0 1 1 2 Gold
2006 CAN Olympics 6 1 2 3 16 7th
2010 CAN Olympics 7 0 5 5 2 Gold
  CAN TOTAL 47 5 17 22 58  

For more information:

Esther Madziya
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 284-6484 

[email protected] 

Spencer Sharkey
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 777-4567

[email protected]

Jeremy Knight
Manager, Corporate Communications
Hockey Canada

(647) 251-9738

[email protected]

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