The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2012 on Tuesday afternoon, and Adam Oates made news for the second time in a span of less than three hours.
Oates, who was hired Tuesday as the head coach of one of his former teams, the Washington Capitals, was announced on Tuesday afternoon as a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame's four-man Class of 2012. He'll be joined in Toronto this November by Pavel Bure, Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin.
"I haven't had too many days like this in my career," Oates said when the Hall's selection committee reached him by phone.
Oates, who ranks sixth all-time in the NHL in assists with 1,079 helpers, led the league in assists three times (1992-93, 2000-01, 2001-02) and had more assists during the 1990s than any player other than Wayne Gretzky. He finished his 1,337-game NHL career with 341 goals and 1,079 assists, and added 42 goals and 114 assists in 163 Stanley Cup Playoff games, including runs to the Cup finals with Washington in 1998 and Anaheim in 2003.
The only player in this year's Hall of Fame class to capture sports' most famous trophy, however, is Sakic, who won the Stanley Cup twice, with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and 2001, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs (he won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL's MVP in 2001). The native of Burnaby, British Columbia played his entire 20-year career with the Colorado franchise, starting in 1988-89 as a 19-year-old rookie with the team then known as the Quebec Nordiques. He finished his 1,378-game career with 625 goals and 1016 assists.
Sundin started his career as Sakic's teammate in Quebec, having been drafted first overall by the Nordiques in 1989. He was the first European-born player to be the NHL's top draft pick, and he went on to score 564 goals and hand out 785 assists in his 1,346-game NHL career, spent largely with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto's lack of postseason success limited Sundin's playoff opportunities, but he did score 38 goals and assist on 44 more in 91 career playoff games.
Bure is a two-time winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal-scorer and the Calder Trophy winner as the league's top rookie in 1992, when he began his NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks. He had 437 goals and 342 assists in his 702-game NHL career, in addition to 35 goals and 35 assists in 64 Stanley Cup Playoff games, most notably his 16 goals and 15 assists in the 1994 playoffs, when he led the Canucks to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals before falling to the New York Rangers. Bure would finish his NHL career with the Rangers in the 2002-03 season, after a tenure with the Florida Panthers that saw him win both of his Rocket Richard Trophies.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place in Toronto on Monday, November 12.