Hall of Fame committee member says long waits for Doug Wilson, Kevin Lowe ‘was an oversight’

Brian Burke says it probably shouldn't have taken Doug Wilson and Kevin Lowe two decades or more to be elected to the Hall of Fame

Perhaps, according to one member of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee, it shouldn’t have taken Doug Wilson or Kevin Lowe two decades or more to be bestowed the sport’s highest individual honor.

Brian Burke, a longtime executive in the NHL and a Hall of Fame committee member since 2012, told Sportsnet radio in Calgary on Thursday that it might have been a mistake to not elect Wilson and Lowe sooner. Both were elected Wednesday, along with Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, Kim St-Pierre and Ken Holland.

Wilson, who retired as a player in 1993 after a 16-year NHL career that included a Norris Trophy in 1982, was in his 24th year of eligibility. Lowe, who was on six Stanley Cup championship teams and played 1,254 regular season games over 19 years, was in his 20th year.

“I think it was an oversight,” Burke said. “I don’t think it’s a case of, ‘We’ve got to find a way to fit these guys in.’ These guys are legitimate hall of famers and I think it was an oversight that they were out this long.”

Hockey’s unique hall of fame selection process played a role in the long delay.

The selection committee has 18 members, a mixture of executives, media and former players and coaches. Committee members are allowed nominate no more than one individual in the Player Category, the Builder Category and the Referee or Linesman Category. Those nominations must be filed with the Chair of the Board of Directors or Selection Committee no later than midnight ET on April 15 of each year.

The committee can select a maximum of four male players, two female players, and either two builders or one builder and one referee or linesman. All nominated candidates needed to receive at least 14 votes (75%) to get in.

Perhaps because of those maximum totals, candidates for the hall can remain eligible for election indefinitely.

“What I like about our thing is that you’re never out of the running,” Burke said.

It is unknown how many times Wilson or Lowe might have been nominated before this year. Selection committee members, as Eric Duhatschek noted in The Athletic earlier this week, are “asked to sign a confidentiality agreement that forbids you from revealing in public what was said in the committee meetings.”

Since 2010, eight male defensemen have been inducted — Mark Howe in 2011, Chris Chelios and Scott Niedermayer in 2013, Rob Blake in 2014, Phil Housley, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger in 2015, and Sergei Zubov in 2019. Out of those players, Howe had to wait the longest, as he had been eligible for 13 years before his induction.

So while Wilson and Lowe had impressive resumes of their own, they didn’t quite stack up to the ones of the players that got in before them.

“Let’s say, at the end of next year, (Patrick) Marleau, (Joe) Thornton an (Jaromir) Jagr officially retire, and three years later, they’re eligible,” Burke said. “You want to be a candidate for admission that year? There’s one spot open, guys. I can tell you right now. You’re only allowed four men. So if those three retire the same year and wait the same period of three years for their eligibility, there’s only one person going in that year besides those three. They’re all walking in, and again, I’m not telling tales out of school, I’m on the committee, but you know what I’m saying, making an example.

“Yes, timing is part of it. This is two defensemen in a class, which is very unusual, but I think this was an oversight. Was it a mistake? I guess you’d have to say, because I was on the committee for the last five or six years, so I’d guess you’d have to say, in a given year, should one or both of these guys have found a way in? Maybe.”

“He’s a Hockey Hall of Famer.”

Jumbo shares his congrats with Doug Wilson – shirtless, of course. pic.twitter.com/E1fj6YsnHP

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 25, 2020

In 1,024 regular-season games, Wilson had 237 goals and 590 assists, including a career-high 39 goals in 1981-82 when he won the Norris. Lowe had just 84 goals and 431 points in his career, but was the heart and soul of the Oilers’ dynasty in the 1980s.

“Kevin Lowe was a great defender, an elite defender, was (on the) first defense pairing, played against all of the other teams’ top lines, still had decent numbers, and people are saying, ‘Well he doesn’t have the numbers to be there.’ Well, he’s a much better defender than any of those guys with big point totals,” Burke said.

“Doug Wilson, on the other hand, was a guy that, the team never got very far, and that’s the GM’s fault, that’s not his fault. But this was a guy that was a dominant offensive defenseman, and got ignored because there were guys like (Bobby) Orr and (Ray) Bourque and (Rod) Langway playing in that same era.”