Bettman, Brodeur get Hall of Fame festivities started with Class of 2018

TORONTO -- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stretched his right arm out in front him and stared at his hand, at the new piece of jewelry he had received seconds earlier: his Hall of Fame ring.

"It's actually overwhelming," the Commissioner said while gazing at the ring, which bears his name, his induction year and a diamond-encrusted Hall of Fame logo surrounded by the words Hockey Hall of Fame.
Commissioner Bettman and his fellow members of the Class of 2018 -- Martin Brodeur, Martin St. Louis, Alexander Yakushev, Jayna Hefford and Willie O'Ree -- were feted with their rings at a ceremony at the Hockey Hall of Fame on Friday.
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It was the first event of their big weekend, which culminates in each being inducted Monday. This was the it's-hitting-me-now moment for all of them.
"I knew it was out there, but until we were flying up today as a family it didn't really start to hit me," said Commissioner Bettman, who along with O'Ree is being inducted in the Builders category. "Right now, in the last half hour, it started taking a more real quality to it and the more I think about it the more overwhelming it will be."
St. Louis used that same word, overwhelming.
"It's such a humbling place," he said.
St. Louis is getting inducted in his first year of eligibility, three years after ending an NHL career many thought never would happen.
At 5-foot-8, the forward was initially deemed too small to play in the NHL, which is why he didn't get a sniff of the League after a strong four-year career at the University of Vermont ended in 1997. He finally did with the Calgary Flames during the 1998-99 season, but it wasn't until he got to the Tampa Bay Lightning prior to 2000-01 that he thrived.
St. Louis finished with 1,033 points (391 goals, 642 assists) in 1,134 games in 16 NHL seasons. He won the Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal, the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, the Art Ross Trophy twice as the NHL points leader and the Lady Byng Trophy three times for his playing ability and sportsmanship.

He said he has about 50 people coming to town this weekend to share in his receiving the highest individual honor in the sport.
"I'm just happy to have all my family and friends being around in one place," St. Louis said. "I spend time with these guys sometimes, these guys sometimes, but now it's almost like a wedding, everybody is all together. For me, it's having my close people together and sharing my success one last time."
Brodeur said he has between 50 and 60 people joining him this weekend to celebrate. He has friends and family coming from Montreal, where he grew up; New Jersey, where he became a legendary goalie, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and the NHL's all-time leader in wins (691); and St. Louis, where he finished his playing career and started his new path as a hockey executive.
"I think when I walked in today I looked at [his Hall of Fame plaque] over there, then sitting here, getting on stage, it hits you," said Brodeur, the executive vice president of business development for the New Jersey Devils, his former team. "When they announce you're going in [June 26], there are still four months before it, so it's a long ways before you're going to get inducted. Now it's here. I've got everybody coming in slowly. We're going to have fun. We're going to enjoy it. It's going to be a great celebration."

Commissioner Bettman said he bought 34 tickets to the induction ceremony in addition to the 16 he receives as an inductee and the two he normally gets from the Hall of Fame as Commissioner. The Commissioner said sharing the weekend with so many friends and family members is what will make it so special for him.
"It's actually seems surreal," said Commissioner Bettman, who was hired Feb. 1, 1993.
Hefford, a four-time Olympic gold medalist with Canada, was taken aback by the company she is joining in the Esso Great Hall, where every Hall of Famer is honored with a plaque. Of particular interest to the forward were the five women she is joining in the Hall: Cammi Granato, Angela James, Geraldine Heaney, Angela Ruggiero and Danielle Goyette.
"Somebody asked that earlier, what I would go check out first, and I was always a big Wayne Gretzky fan growing up, as most people [were] in the '80s, so it's always special when I get to see some of his stuff," she said. "After that, it would be checking out the other women and the women's hockey history here. It's a young history, but it's starting to grow here and that's special."

O'Ree, who in 1958 became the first black NHL player, started thinking about the people who won't be in Toronto this weekend when he was asked what will make this occasion special for him.
"I'm going to make a lot of people happy," he said. "Not only the people that are here, but the people back in my hometown (Fredericton, New Brunswick), there are hundreds of them there. People that I haven't seen in maybe a year or a year and a half, they know I'm going to be inducted and I think that they're going to be very happy and very pleased that finally I get the opportunity to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame."
His tone got more powerful when he said "finally," a word many have used in reference to his being elected. O'Ree said his response to anyone who thinks that way is to tell them some honors just take longer to receive. Even he hasn't fully grasped it yet.
"Monday," O'Ree said. "When I do my speech, I'll probably realize then that it's truly a fact that I've been inducted into the Hall of Fame."