Shea Weber and Pavel Datsyuk enshrined as part of Hockey Hall of Fame’s 2024 class – Brandon Sun

TORONTO – The stories of Shea Weber and David Poile have been intertwined for more than two decades.

Poile drafted Weber when he was general manager of the Nashville Predators and eventually handed the captaincy over to him.

He also sent his star defenseman out of town in a blockbuster trade.

Both are now members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Weber joined Pavel Datsyuk, Jeremy Roenick, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell as 2024 nominees in the actor category on Monday. Poile and Colin Campbell entered as builders.

“There’s a lot to be grateful for when playing this game,” Weber said during his speech. “And it’s not just the big moments, it’s a play-off win or taking home the Olympic gold. It’s the small – seemingly routine – moments that matter most.”

The 39-year-old from Sicamous BC, whose career ended prematurely due to a long list of injuries, has not been able to play since helping lead Montreal to the 2021 Stanley Cup final.

Weber scored 589 points in 1,038 games with the Canadiens and Nashville Predators. He added 42 points in 97 playoff games.

“My love for the game is still strong,” he said. “Even if my body doesn’t last as long as I hope.”

Weber’s career trajectory changed in June 2016 when Poile traded him to the Canadiens in a one-for-one swap for fellow blueliner PK Subban.

Weber thanked Montreal’s owners, management and fans for giving him “the chance to play in the most passionate hockey city he’s ever encountered.”

“I guess I have to thank David Poile for that too,” Weber added, as his former teammates, including Carey Price, looked on from the crowd.

Poile touched on his 41-year career as a GM in the NHL, including the advice he received while working under Cliff Fletcher before taking the big seat.

“He sat me down and said bluntly: ‘David, if you’re lucky enough to be a general manager, you know what it feels like to trade a player, to uproot his family,'” Poile recalled. “We couldn’t have predicted at the time that I would make the most trades ever in National Hockey League history.

“But I always remembered Cliff’s message.”

The Toronto native got his start as an NHL executive with the Atlanta and Calgary Flames before becoming general manager of the Washington Capitals in 1982. Poile later joined the Predators expansion team in 1997, becoming their GM, a position he held until his retirement in 2023.

“I poured my heart and soul into the game,” Poile said. “But hockey has given me and my family so much more.”

Datsyuk, 46, scored 918 points in 953 games with the Detroit Red Wings. He added 113 points in 157 playoff contests, including Stanley Cup victories in 2002 and 2008.

The magnificently skilled Russian center also won the Lady Byng Trophy four times as the NHL’s most sportsmanlike player and won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defenseman three times.

Datsyuk, who was enshrined in his first year of selection alongside Weber, played five seasons in the KHL after leaving Detroit in 2016 and represented his country in five straight Olympics, winning gold in 2018 and bronze in 2002.

“It is a great honor to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Datsyuk said. “(It’s) an honor I could never have imagined.”

Darwitz, 41, played for the United States in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympics, winning two silver and one bronze medal. St. The forward from St. Paul, Minnesota, also competed in eight world championships, winning three gold medals.

Wendell, 43, represented the United States at the Winter Games twice, winning silver in 2002 and bronze in 2006. The forward from Brooklyn Park, Minn., won six medals at the world championships and became the first American captain to win a gold medal in the tournament.

“The best part of hockey wasn’t winning a championship or a medal,” Wendell said. “But the people I met along the way.”

Campbell’s hockey life has included time as a player, coach and, for the past 25 years, as senior executive vice president of the NHL. He spearheaded the establishment of the league’s centralized video review center, which is now standard throughout much of the North American sports world.

The 71-year-old, who hails from Tillsonburg, Ontario, also won the Stanley Cup in 1994 as an assistant coach with the New York Rangers.

Roenick, 54, scored 1,216 points in 1,363 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. The colorful Boston-born winger added 122 points (53 goals, 69 assists) in 154 play-off games.

“I love this game,” an emotional Roenick said. “It’s been a huge part of my life for most of my life.”

Roenick, who won a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics, had to wait 12 years to get the nod.

“Thank you to the fans all over the world,” he said. “I loved playing in front of you. I loved getting you up from your seat. I loved hearing you yell at me and booing me.”

“That was the greatest compliment you could ever have.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2024.

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