The Hockey Hall of Fame announced the Class of 2026 on Monday, and multiple names familiar to fans of the Detroit Red Wings were included.
Among the names heading to Toronto later this year include Keith Tkachuk, Patrice Bergeron, Pekka Rinne, Carey Price, and Brian Burke.
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However, a pair of notable former Red Wings players who more than proved their worth of being enshrined in the Hall of Fame during their respective playing careers were once again snubbed.
Henrik Zetterberg, the 2008 Conn Smythe Trophy winner who is also a member of the Triple Gold Club, along with goaltender Chris Osgood, who won the Stanley Cup three times (twice as a starter) and accumulated 400 career wins, will have to wait another season.
Zetterberg has already earned well-deserved inductions into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame along with the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
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A late-round gem discovered by the Red Wings, Zetterberg was selected 210th overall in the 1999 NHL Draft, and would burst onto the scene as a rookie in the 2002-03 season on a club still chalk-full of future Hall of Fame players.
He was snubbed for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie, falling short to St. Louis Blues defenseman Barrett Jackman. However, Zetterberg would go on to become one of the best defensive forwards in recent hockey history.
His best production came between 2005 and 2011, including a 43 goal, 49 assist campaign in 2007-08 that culminated not only in the Stanley Cup, but the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Upon the retirement of fellow Swede Nicklas Lidstrom in 2012, Zetterberg would be named the 36th captain in team history. His 960 points rank fifth overall in team history.
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Osgood, whom the Red Wings selected with the 54th overall pick in the 1991 NHL Draft, spent the early years of his NHL career in Detroit. He saw significant action during the regular season and the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs before the club acquired Hall of Fame goaltender Mike Vernon from the Calgary Flames.
Named Detroit’s starter for the 1996 postseason, Osgood also handled the bulk of the workload the following season. However, coach Scotty Bowman turned to Vernon’s veteran experience for the 1997 playoffs, a decision that helped lead Detroit to its first Stanley Cup in 42 years while Vernon captured the Conn Smythe Trophy.
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Vernon was traded to the San Jose Sharks later that summer, leaving Osgood as Detroit’s unquestioned starter. He responded by backstopping the Red Wings to a second consecutive Stanley Cup championship in 1998.
After Detroit acquired Dominik Hasek, Osgood was placed on waivers before the 2001-02 season and claimed by the New York Islanders. In his first year on Long Island, he helped lead the Islanders to Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Osgood was traded to the St. Louis Blues the following season, where he remained until the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
Following the lockout, he returned to Detroit on a one-year contract and formed a goaltending tandem with Manny Legace.
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Though he spent most of the next two seasons backing up Hasek, Osgood took over during the 2008 playoffs after Game 4 of Detroit’s opening-round series against Nashville and carried the Red Wings the rest of the way to their 11th Stanley Cup title.
While Osgood struggled during the following regular season, he was again named Detroit’s playoff starter and received Conn Smythe Trophy consideration as the Red Wings finished one win shy of repeating as Stanley Cup champions.
Eventually supplanted as starter by Jimmy Howard, Osgood won his 400th career game in December 2010, and called it a career later that summer with 401 career wins, which currently rank 15th all time.
His 317 victories with the Red Wings are second in team history behind only Terry Sawchuk.
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