Penguins to relaunch franchise's hall of fame with 10 new members

The past dozen years or so have been eventful for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

There have been a pair of Stanley Cup championships, a gaggle of blockbuster trades, a handful of general managers and even a few different ownership groups (with potentially another kicking the tires).

What the Penguins haven’t done over the past 12 years is add any new members to the franchise’s hall of fame.

That will be changing beginning with the upcoming season.

On Tuesday, the Penguins announced a relaunch of the organization’s hall of fame which has largely been in stasis since 2013.

A group of 10 individuals will be inducted into the hall over the next three seasons.

Players Tom Barrasso, Ron Francis, Jaromir Jagr, Chris Kunitz, Larry Murphy and Kevin Stevens along with builders Scotty Bowman, Eddie Johnston, Jim Rutherford and Ray Shero were selected for the honor. All 10 played significant roles in leading the franchise to Stanley Cup championships.

That group will be broken up into various classes over the next three seasons. Details on who will compose the first class will be revealed in the ensuing weeks. The ceremony for that class is scheduled to take place prior to a home contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 25.

Additionally, a physical space within the main concourse of PPG Paints Arena will be dedicated to the hall. Details on that domain will be revealed at a later date.

Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas called nine of the honorees to inform them of the recognition. In the case of Shero, who died on April 9 at the age of 62, Dubas spoke with his sons, Chris and Kyle Shero, to convey the news.

A 21-person voting committee — former players, coaches, general managers, broadcasters and club employees, along with local media — determined the initial group of honorees for the relaunch.

The committee was asked to consider a variety of factors in its selections. For players, those criteria included career statistics, postseason contributions and longevity, among others. The sole requirement for eligibility is that players must be retired from the NHL for at least one year.

(Longtime goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury retired as a member of the Minnesota Wild this past spring.)

Regarding builders, voters were asked to weigh longevity, success and if the candidate contributed to a championship.

Initially launched in 1992, the hall already has 20 members:

1992: Rick Kehoe (player), Jean Pronovost (player), Bob Johnson (builder)

1994: Syl Apps (player)

1996: Dave Burrows (player), Edward DeBartolo (contributor), Elaine Heufelder (contributor)

1999: Mario Lemieux (player), Jack Riley (builder)

2000: Joe Mullen (player)

2001: Craig Patrick (builder), Mike Lange (contributor), A.T. Caggiano (contributor)

2003: Les Binkley (player), Ulf Samuelsson (player), Vince Lascheid (contributor)

2007: Paul Coffey (player), Frank Sciulli (contributor)

2013: Mark Recchi (player), Dr. Charles ‘Chip’ Burke (contributor)

Following the 2013 inductions, the hall was largely overlooked for the past 12 years until management kick-started the process of a relaunch earlier this year.

“The Penguins are one of the most storied franchises in the history of National Hockey League and permanently celebrating the success of our past players and personnel has been an important mission of our current staff all across the organization,” Dubas said in a statement. “The three-year plan is an effort to recognize those whose contributions laid the foundation for the championship standard here in Pittsburgh.”