Column: Rogatien Vachon’s long journey to the Hockey Hall of Fame finally ends Monday

As the youngest of the kids who sneaked water from the well to create a hockey rink on the Vachon family’s dairy farm in tiny Palmarolle, Canada, Rogatien Vachon was destined to become a goaltender.

Using homemade sticks, with a couple of lights illuminating the ice and cows as their audience, they’d play from morning until night. It was glorious: just them and the elements, no coaches to criticize them. He didn’t mind the times his mother scolded them for taking so much water that they’d left the well nearly dry.

“They said, ‘If you want to play with us, then you’ve got to be in goal,’” Vachon recalled. “Not exactly a goal. Two whatever we put on the ice. Two blocks. And then, whenever you let a goal in, you’ve got to go and find the puck in the snowbanks.”

Even then, Vachon showed hints of the quickness and tenacity that would lift him to the pinnacle of professional hockey as a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Montreal Canadiens and the first superstar of the fledgling Kings. Now 71, he still carries in his heart the spirit of that put-upon little brother, the small-town kid who made it big despite standing 5-foot-7. Those memories will be with him Monday in Toronto during his long-overdue induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“It’s pretty awesome when you think about it,” he said of his journey from Palmarolle to hockey immortality.

Vachon will share the spotlight with retired forwards Eric Lindros and Sergei Makarov, and the late Pat Quinn, a former Kings coach who will be honored in the builders category. Longtime New York Rangers broadcaster Sam Rosen and Chicago-based writer Bob Verdi will receive media awards.

Vachon, who retired as a player in 1982, has waited longer than any of them. Too long, given his statistics and his impact on the Kings as a player and, later, as a goalie coach, assistant coach, interim coach, general manager and ambassador.

When he retired he ranked fifth in career NHL wins with 355, including 171 with the Kings. He also contributed to three Cup championships and was voted most valuable player of the 1976 Canada Cup, strong credentials. But every year he’d wait for a phone call that never came, and after a while he gave up.

He believes he was overlooked in part because he spent the prime of his career in Los Angeles during a time voters in established NHL cities had little chance to see his feats. “I think that has a lot to do with it, yes. Because when you look at my era and the other goalies comparable to me, they’re all from the East,” he said, citing Gump Worsley and Ed Giacomin. “And if you look at the stats, my stats were better than these guys and they got in.”

Luc Robitaille, who was drafted by the Kings in 1984 when Vachon was the club’s general manager, has another theory. “I think people thought he was in,” said Robitaille, who became a Hall of Famer himself and serves on the Hall’s selection committee in addition to being the Kings’ president of business operations. “Honestly, I think a lot of people just assumed he was in.”

It’s safe to say Robitaille played a role in ensuring Vachon got in, though Robitaille won’t say. In any case, a wrong has been righted for Vachon, who made his NHL debut for Montreal on Feb. 18, 1967, replacing the injured Worsley and slumping Charlie Hodge. Vachon stopped the first shot he faced — a breakaway by Gordie Howe, and often said that kept him in the league.

He played in nine games during the 1966-67 playoffs, excelling even though Toronto Coach Punch Imlach derisively called him a “Junior B goaltender.” Montreal lost the Cup Final to Toronto but Vachon played in two games of Montreal’s 1967-68 championship run, and stood out during their 1969 repeat run, winning seven of eight playoff games while compiling a stingy 1.42 goals-against average.

The Canadiens missed the playoffs in 1969-70 and the following season, with a playoff spot secured, they decided to take a look at a tall, college-trained goalie named Ken Dryden. “He didn’t do too bad, either. He was the MVP of the playoffs,” Vachon said, smiling. “So it was time for me to move on.”

Vachon asked Canadiens General Manager Sam Pollock to trade him to a team that needed a starter and Pollock obliged, sending him to the Kings on Nov. 4, 1971, for Denis DeJordy, Dale Hoganson, Noel Price and Doug Robinson. “I could have stayed, played maybe 20 games, been No. 2, win maybe three or four Cups,” Vachon said. “When you’re young, I wanted to be No. 1 somewhere. It’s too boring to play being on the bench. It turned out pretty good. After all these years, a pretty good move.”

He made another good move a few weeks later, when he came back to Montreal with the Kings, when he and his girlfriend Nicole—whom he had met on a blind date arranged by a sportswriter--drove in a snowstorm to Burlington, Vt., to get married. His first game after that was a loss, but the marriage was a triumph, lasting until Nicole’s death in February after a four-month battle with brain cancer. It’s unspeakably sad that she won’t be with him Monday. “That’s going to be the toughest thing for me and my whole family,” he said. “Too bad [his induction] didn’t happen a couple years ago.”

He and Nicole loved Los Angeles and he became a fan favorite, solidifying the Kings’ place in a tough market and enhancing their image. “Our team was so bad when I got there. There were very few people going to the games. It was not very popular in those days,” he said. “It was really a culture shock, when you think about going from a top team to a very ugly team, and the weather, the mentality, totally different.”

Led by the quick glove of Vachon, who twice finished in the top three in MVP voting, the Kings peaked under Coach Bob Pulford in 1974-75 with 105 points, still a franchise record. But they could never go deep in the playoffs and by 1978 Vachon left as a free agent. He finished his playing career in Boston but returned to the Kings to fill an array of executive jobs and was their general manager when then-owner Bruce McNall engineered the trade that acquired Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton. “I knew how big he was in Canada—he was like God. But I didn’t realize how big he was going to be in the States,” Vachon said. “He changed everything.”

Vachon made his own significant impact on the Kings and the NHL but never lost touch with his 5-year-old self and the joy of playing on that outdoor rink. Appropriately, that part of his life will be represented in the Hall, too. A friend from Palmarolle, remembering the sticks Vachon and his pals had made on the farm by nailing together two pieces of wood, crafted a similar stick and got Vachon’s teammates to sign it. Vachon asked for it to be displayed with other artifacts from his career. “My little stick is going to be in the Hall of Fame,” he said in wonder.

The important thing is he will be in the Hall. Finally.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Twitter: @helenenothelen