Hayley Wickenheiser will join IIHF Hall of Fame
Wick becomes the first woman since Angela Ruggiero to join the IIHF’s Hall of Fame
Today, the IIHF announced that Team Canada icon Hayley Wickenheiser will be inducted into the IIHF’s Hall of Fame. She will become the first woman to be inducted in two years, after Angela Ruggiero was honored in 2017. The induction ceremony will take place on May 26 in Bratisvlava before the medal games of the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
No woman in hockey has won more than @wick_22: 5 Olympic gold medals, 7 #WomensWorlds with @HC_Women. And recently she was hired by the @MapleLeafs as assistant director of player development. Welcome to the IIHF Hall of Fame, Hayley Wickenheiser! https://t.co/JRqnY6JVHJ pic.twitter.com/rBLZJuWe5B
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) February 6, 2019
Wickenheiser will be just the ninth female player inducted into the IIHF’s Hall of Fame. Cammi Granato, Geraldine Heaney, and Angela James were the first women inducted into the IIHF’s Hall of Fame back in 2008. It’s also important to note that Fran Rider was inducted as a builder because of her contributions to the women’s game. Since 2013, only four women’s hockey players have made their way to the IIHF’s HOF.
- Geraldine Heaney - 2008
- Cammi Granato - 2008
- Angela James - 2008
- Riikka Sallinen (Välilä) - 2010
- Karyn Bye-Dietz - 2011
- Danielle Goyette - 2013
- Fran Rider, as a Builder - 2015
- Maria Rooth - 2015
- Angela Ruggiero - 2017/
Wickenheiser is the highest-scoring player in Olympic and IIHF Women’s World Championship history. She has four Olympic gold medals and one silver medal and 13 medals from the Women’s Worlds. There are few athletes on the planet, let alone hockey players, who are as decorated or who have achieved as much as she did in her 22-year career. There’s no doubt that she belongs in both the IIHF Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
If Wickenheiser joins the Hockey Hall of Fame later this year, she’ll become just the seventh woman to be immortalized in the Hall. She currently works for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant director of player development.
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