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Sakic, Koivu, Selanne, Krupp, Ruggiero named to IIHF Hall of Fame

Sakic, Koivu, Selanne to IIHF Hall of Fame

Joe Sakic as well as Finnish stars Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne are among five former players named Tuesday for induction into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

The IIHF aso announced Tuesday that German defenceman Uwe Krupp and U.S. women's star  Angela Ruggiero would enter the hall along with builder Dieter Kalt of Austria.

The induction ceremony is to be held May 21 in Cologne, Germany, Krupp's home town.

Sakic is a member of the Triple Gold Club, having won the Stanley Cup (in 1996 and 2001), an IIHF world championship (1994) and an Olympic gold medal (2002). The Burnaby, B.C. native, now vice-president of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs in 1996 and was named top player at the 2002 Winter Games.

He had 625 goals and 1,106 assists in 1,378 games between 1988 and 2009 for the Quebec Nordiques and the Avalanche. Sakic entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in in 2012.

Koivu led Finland to its first world championship gold medal in 1995 and the following season joined the Montreal Canadiens, where he would later serve for 10 years as the team's first European captain. He won eight international medals in his career, including silver at the 2006 Olympics, the 1999 worlds and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. 

Selanne posted a record 43 points at six Olympics, including the 2014 Games when he was named tournament MVP in Sochi, Russia. He was also a goal-scoring machine in the NHL, where he piled up 684 goals and 1,457 points in 1,451 regular season games. The Finnish Flash had a record 76 goals and 132 points as a rookie with the Winnipeg Jets and won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007.

Krupp played 14 seasons in the NHL, scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime for Colorado in 1996, when he became the first German to win the Cup. The six-foot-six rearguard won another Cup in 2002 with Detroit.

Ruggiero was the youngest member of the U.S. team that won gold when women's hockey debuted at the 1998 Winter Games. She was also part of four world championship gold medal squads.

Kalt is a former player who later became president of the Austrian Ice Hockey federation.

 

The Canadian Press