Luc Robitaille hoping for Hockey Hall of Fame phone call Tuesday

Luc Robitaille plans to spend today at his desk at the Kings’ El Segundo offices, but it won’t be business as usual.

This is the day the Hockey Hall of Fame will announce this year’s inductees, and Robitaille has an excellent chance to be among them. The limit in the players’ category is four, and the strong pool of first-year eligible players includes Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Dave Andreychuk and Alexander Mogilny.

“I’m going to be at work, so I’ll be next to the phone,” said Robitaille, who retired in April 2006 and is the Kings’ president of business operations.

“I think it would be great, but it’s not up to me. I can’t control the situation. When you’re a player, you can say, ‘Next game, I’ve got to be better.’ In this case, there’s not much I can do.”

His accomplishments over 19 NHL seasons -- 14 of them with the Kings -- state his case persuasively.

Chosen by the Kings 171st overall in the 1984 entry draft, he defied critics who said his skating and speed weren’t good enough for him to succeed in the NHL.

He made the Kings in the 1986-87 season, scoring 45 goals and 84 points to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. He was named to the first All-Star team five times, to the second team three times, and played in the midseason All-Star game eight times.

He had to leave the Kings, however, to get his name on the Stanley Cup, achieving that after he signed with the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent in 2001 and contributed 30 goals and 50 points in the season leading up to their 2002 title. He returned to the Kings as a free agent in 2003, though his ice time and production dwindled.

Robitaille, 43, remains the NHL’s career leader in goals and points by a left wing, with 668 and 1,394, respectively. He also holds the record for points by a left wing in one season with the 125 he scored in 1992-93 in leading the Kings to their lone Cup finals appearance.

He said he and his wife, Stacia, will have a nice dinner tonight no matter what happens.

“Maybe I’ll just play it cool,” he said. “For a player it’s a heck of an honor. As a kid I didn’t set out to be in the Hall of Fame. I just wanted to play.”

Yzerman, captain of three Red Wings Cup winners and among the top 10 career point leaders with 1,755 over 22 seasons, is a lock for election. He became the prototype of a two-way forward and a respected leader.

Hull, son of Hall of Famer Bobby Hull and third on the career goal-scoring list with 741 over 20 seasons, also is a sure pick. He won the Cup with Dallas in 1999 and with Detroit in 2002 alongside Yzerman and Robitaille, and he scored 50 or more goals in five seasons. He holds the record of 86 goals by a right wing in one season, 1990-91.

Leetch also has solid credentials. A two-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP when the New York Rangers ended a 54-year Cup drought in 1994.

Andreychuk also put up solid numbers -- 640 goals and 1,338 points over 23 seasons -- and Mogilny was a premier goal scorer in the early 1990s, with 473 goals in 990 games. But they might have to wait.

“There sure are some very good people eligible,” Robitaille said. “It’s amazing. Look at that group and what those guys did for the game.”

He did as much as, or more than, any of them.

--

helene.elliott@latimes.com