Monday, November 14, 2011
Belfour, Nieuwendyk Called to the Hall
Monday night in Toronto, for the second time in three years, the Hockey Hall of Fame inducted two former college hockey players in the same class in its player category. North Dakota’s Ed Belfour and Cornell’s Joe Nieuwendyk are among the 2011 class.
Both players finished their college careers in 1986-87, Belfour after his freshman year and Nieuwendyk after three seasons with the Big Red. They become the ninth and 10th former college players to join the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Players category (four others are inducted as Builders).
Watch: Nieuwendyk’s speech | Belfour’s speech
Nieuwendyk was a two-time first-team All-American and a Hobey Baker Award finalist at Cornell, earning ECAC Player of the Year honors in 1987 and Rookie of the Year honors in 1985. The current general manager of the Dallas Stars, Nieuwendyk was named one of the ECAC’s top 50 players all-time earlier this year.
He reflected on his time at Cornell during his induction speech.
“It was there that I had an experience that far exceeded anything I could have imagined,” he said, mentioning then-teammate and current Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “Those truly were some of the best years of my life.”
Nieuwendyk and fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Ken Dryden had their numbers retired by the Big Red in 2010. That trip to Lynah Rink was far from his only return visit to Ithaca, N.Y.
“I go back every summer,” he said. “As soon as I signed with Calgary in ’87 I bought a house on the lake there and I’ve been going back for 20 years.”
The three-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympian enjoyed a 20-year NHL career with five teams and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs as a teammate of Belfour’s in Dallas in 1999.
Belfour backstopped one of college hockey’s great teams in his season at North Dakota, earning second-team All-America honors and winning an NCAA championship. He was 29-4-0 with a 2.43 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage and led the Fighting Sioux to a 5-3 win against Michigan State in the national championship game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
“Coming from a school like the University of North Dakota where tradition and pride and family are so important, you kind of lose that a little bit at the NHL level,” he said. “Without UND, the program here and my coaches and teammates I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to move on and win a Stanley Cup and have an NHL career.”
Belfour was undrafted but signed with the Chicago Blackhawks as a free agent after his freshman season. He won the Calder Trophy (three years after Nieuwendyk had) and was a two-time Vezina Trophy winner.
“Just getting the opportunity to come and play here was a dream come true,” he said during a visit to North Dakota. “It was so much fun. I enjoyed the challenge. We had obviously a great team, a real competitive team, and without those guys you don’t get the opportunity to do things in your career that I did.”
Four of the 10 former collegians in the Hockey Hall of Fame were goaltenders, as Belfour joins Frank Brimsek, Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito in that group.