St. Louis Blues Have Three Hall Of Fame Inductees, Technically

The St. Louis Blues will have three former members going into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2023. However, it takes a true die-hard fan to remember that one of them ever wore the Note.

The two notable former Blues going in are Pierre Turgeon, on the player side, and Ken Hitchcock as a coach. Both of them are incredibly deserving.

Hitch is the second winningest coach in Blues history with 224 wins in St. Louis. He has the best winning percentage of any coach on the Blues bench.

In addition to his St. Louis numbers, Hitchcock had 849 career wins in the NHL. He won the Stanley Cup in Dallas and got the Blues to the conference final for the first time in around 30 years.

Turgeon goes into the Hall having played just short of 1300 NHL games. He finished his career with 515 goals and 1327 points, giving him more than a point per game over his career.

He scored more than 100 points twice in his career. Though a playmaker first, he scored 40 goals twice and had a career high of 58 goals in one season.

He never reached those heights with the Blues, but he was remarkably consistent. He never had fewer than 22 goals and never fewer than 65 points. Turgeon had 14 goals and 45 points with the Blues in the playoffs over five seasons.

Turgeon had 327 games with the Blues. Hitchcock had 363 behind the Blues bench. Needless to say, both of them had a good history with the Blues.

While the overall career of the third name was more than worthy of going into the Hall of Fame, he barely had a cup of coffee in St. Louis. That man’s name is Tom Barrasso.

Barrasso started his career with the Buffalo Sabres. He rose to prominence with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Though he often split time on and off with Ken Wregget, Barrasso was the main goaltender during both Stanley Cup wins for the Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

He finished his career with 369 regular season wins. His numbers were not mind-bogglingly good, but he played in an era when goalies didn’t have a ton of stats and finished his career with almost 19,700 saves.

Why was his Blues career so forgettable? Well, he finished with a grand total of six games played, a record of 1-4 and 16 goals allowed.

Barrasso played in 2002-03, which was the year the Blues were forced to play seven goaltenders. Needless to say, Barrasso knew he was done after that poor showing with St. Louis, but really only came in to help the Blues in a pinch anyway.

Nevertheless, it can be stated, with accuracy, that the Blues will have three members inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame class.

It’s just that one was barely here. But, once a Blue, always a Blue.