Which Golden Knights Players Will Be In The Hockey Hall Of Fame?

This is one of those articles that I've sat on for a while, just wanting to write for no particular reason. Christmas afternoon feels like the perfect time to discuss this because why not.

The Vegas Golden Knights are the second-youngest NHL franchise in the league. While they have been extremely successful in regards to being an expansion team, they have no players in their history in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

This will surely change in time, so which players from the Golden Knights, past or present, will be inducted into the HHOF?

Marc-Andre Fleury

No question here. 

Marc-Andre Fleury has carved out one of the most impressive goaltending careers in NHL history. He has three Stanley Cups, a Jennings, and a Vezina Trophy, both of which he won with the Golden Knights, and has over 500 wins in his career.

By the time he retires, he will likely hit 1,000 career NHL games, which has only been done by three other goaltenders, all of which are in the Hall (Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, and Roberto Luongo). He's a first-ballot HHOF'er, no questions asked.

Phil Kessel

Fleury is truly the only sure-fire candidate to make it into the Hockey Hall of Fame as things currently stand. But with Phil Kessel's ironman streak still going strong at over 1,000 games played straight, I think there is a case for him as well. 

Say what you want about his recent play and if it will cause an end to his ironman streak, but Kessel has played in every NHL game since late 2009, is a two-time Stanley Cup Champion, and even a Masterton Trophy Winner.

Memes and opinions about his current play aside, I think there is a very strong case for Kessel to be inducted, but not right away.

Jack Eichel

Now we're getting to a player who still has a lot of time left in his NHL career to prove whether or not he can be a Hall of Famer. We all know that Eichel has the skillset and abilities as a hockey player to put him in the top 10 best current players category. But he has still never proven to be a winner in the NHL, still never making it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

He seems just a step behind the upper-echelon players like Auston Matthews, Nathan Mackinnon, and Connor McDavid. But at 26 years of age, Eichel still has plenty of time in his NHL career to win big with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Alex Pietrangelo

A player who has won big is Alex Pietrangelo, who captained the St. Louis Blues to their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2019. An argument for whether or not Pietrangelo is a Hockey Hall of Famer can be made considering he has played in the NHL for 15 seasons now. 

The stalwart defenseman has never fallen below 20 minutes of average ice time a game in seasons where he has played more than ten games. HockeyReference lists him as a similar scorer to the great Scott Niedermayer and Scott Stevens.

Even though Pietrangelo has over 540 of them in his career, points aren't everything, and there is a case for Pietrangelo in the HHOF.

Alec Martinez

Along the same lines as Pietrangelo is Alec Martinez, a veteran defenseman who has a couple of Stanley Cup rings in his dresser. Not only this, but Martinez was the one who scored the Los Angeles Kings' 2014 cup-clinching goal in overtime.

Martinez has played in over 700 career NHL games over the course of 14 seasons.

Mark Stone

Lastly, you could make a case for Mark Stone, who is going to pass 600 career games by the end of this season. Stone has received Selke Trophy votes five times in his career but never won the award. Nonetheless, he remains one of the best two-way forwards in all of hockey currently. 

The furthest Stone has made it in the Stanley Cup Playoffs came in 2017 when he went to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals with the Ottawa Senators.

For the Golden Knights, getting some of their former players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame once their careers come to a close will certainly be an honor, and further mark the VGK in the NHL's history books.