NHL Meetings : Soviet Goalie Tretiak Voted Into Hall of Fame

Goaltender Vladislav Tretiak became the first Soviet player voted into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame Sunday in a selection committee meeting described as “one of the most spirited” ever.

Also voted in was center Darryl Sittler, who played more than 12 seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs, two with the Philadelphia Flyers and a final season with the Detroit Red Wings.

But the committee failed to make an allowed third selection, passing on Bill Barber, Ted Green, Steve Shutt and Ed Westphal. It was the first time since 1977 that the committee had not agreed upon three inductees in the regular player category.

Herbie Lewis was also voted in, as a veteran player.

Although there was some anticipation that the selection of a Soviet would be met with animosity, especially in light of some of the players passed over, there was no second-guessing on Sittler.

Sittler was out for a Father’s Day game of tennis with his son in Amherst, N.Y., when his wife was sent to give him the news of his selection and get him to a telephone for a conference call to the NHL meetings.

He was thrilled, of course, with his own induction, and seemed pleased to be inducted with Tretiak.

“One of the questions I’m asked most often when I’m out is who’s the best goalie you ever played against,” Sittler said. “I say I never saw a guy in international hockey play as consistently as he did.

“With the way the Soviets are getting involved with the NHL, now, I’m not surprised. The world’s getting smaller all the time. My congratulations to Tretiak.”

Scotty Morrison, president of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said that there had been a motion a year ago to consider a separate category for “non-North American” players. But the feeling was that anyone deserving of induction into the Hall of Fame should be judged against the best in the game.

Morrison said the discussion of Tretiak centered not on his nationality but on whether he had had to play, game in and game out, under the same intensity of competition that NHL goalies faced.

Said Morrison: “It came down to a question of whether he was a good player, or whether he was a great player. The selection committee considered him to be a great player.”

Tretiak, 37, played on 10 world championship teams and three Olympic gold medal-winning teams in his long career with the Soviet National Team. He was also named MVP of the 1981 Canada Cup tournament.

Sittler said that his own selection was “icing on the cake,” after listing his game-winning goal in overtime of the first Canadian Cup as his most thrilling time as a player, his outstanding season with the Flyers (43 goals and 40 assists in his second year there) as the most satisfying, and his failure to win a Stanley Cup in his 15-year career as his biggest disappointment.

Lewis, now 85, played in the first All-Star Game in 1934. He was a standout left winger for the Red Wings from 1928-39 and led the Red Wings to their first Stanley Cup victory in 1936.

The players will be inducted at a dinner in Toronto Oct. 3. And Lewis promised: “I’ll have a group of about 40--every relative in the world is looking forward to it.”

Among the rule changes announced Sunday to be tried in the preseason and voted upon by the board of governors in September was a statute of limitations on supplemental discipline. That is, when an offense occurs in a game that calls for the NHL to review the films, hear testimony and, possibly, hand out fines and/or suspension time, the clubs and the league itself will have to initiate action within 72 hours of the end of the game.

A source close to the Kings said that Pittsburgh offered to trade veteran defenseman Paul Coffey to the Kings for Steve Duchesne and Luc Robitaille, but the Kings weren’t interested.

Goalie Robb Stauber’s contract with the Kings reportedly is a five-year deal (four years and an option year) worth $1 million, with a $125,000 signing bonus.