On June 21 the NHL will select which players will be inducted to the Hall of Fame for 2023. Hockey fans who use Illinois betting sites might also be Blackhawks backers with a vested interest in at least one candidate.
The Hall of Fame selection process has always attracted much publicity, whether it be from fans happy their favorite player got in, disappointed he is out, or confused as to why a player they don’t think deserves to be in was selected.
The 2023 class of newly eligible players is not very strong so players such as Alexander Mogilny, who have been waiting years for induction, will hope this is the year. And first-time players that don’t have a slam-dunk case might get in on their first year of eligibility, rather than waiting the way they might in years when they are competing against more obvious first-ballot choices.
One of those such cases is former Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. IllinoisBet.com – your home of Illinois sports betting coverage – decided to develop hypothetical odds that you can't find at sportsbooks like ESPN BET Illinois on whether Crawford will get into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. We used statistics and resumes of current Hockey Hall of Fame players to make this determination.
Will Corey Crawford Be In 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame Class?
Crawford An Outside Candidate For 2023
As you can see, Crawford’s resume probably doesn’t have quite enough on it to merit an induction into the Hall, especially in his first year. We at IllinoisBet – where you can find the best Illinois sports betting promos – give him a 22% chance of being inducted. That equates to hypothetical odds of +355, a longshot to be sure.
Former Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist seems to be the only lock out of the first-time players up for induction this year. If Crawford is to make it in, it will be based on his record as a winner as he has two Stanley Cups and one World Cup to his name, compared to zero for Lundqvist.
The Case For, Against Crawford
Crawford was the backbone of those two Cup-winning Blackhawks squads, in 2013 and 2015. He also twice won the Jennings Award as part of the team goalie tandem with the lowest goals-against average in a season. He won that honor in the same two seasons in which he helped Chicago win the title.
But one could argue that a lot of goalies would have had equal success playing in front of that roster. He went 260-160-53 in his career with 26 shutouts across 488 games, all with Chicago. He does not have a huge number of games played and that also plays a strong part in the case against him. His body of work simply didn’t stretch long enough to warrant a serious look at the Hall.
There is no doubt that Crawford was an excellent goaltender who was the perfect fit for Chicago. But he simply wasn’t great enough for a long enough time to make it into the Hall of Fame, so to hear his name announced on June 21 would be a surprise.
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