The 2016 inductees into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame in Toronto were announced on Monday. Eric Lindros was elected long with Soviet star Sergei Makarov and goaltender Rogie Vachon. The player and coach Pat Quinn, who died in 2014, made it as well. Quinn was chairman of the hall of fame at the time of his death. Missing from the selection class was Theo Fleury who was irrefutably one of the most electrifying players of his generation.
Sergei Makarov was part of the Russian KLM line with Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov. While Makarov did score the first goal in the 1980 tournament game against the United States at Lake Placid, he will always be a part of the biggest choke in team sports history.
THEO FLEURY - He overcame his 5-foot-6 150 lb. size to put up 1,088 points and win almost everything: The Stanley Cup, Canada Cup, Turner Cup, Olympic gold medal and a World Junior Gold Medal. Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux or any player who has ever laced up skates can lay claim to such remarkable hockey team accomplishments.
Induction into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame will have to wait for the youngster from Oxbow, Saskatchewan. Theo Fleury has battled demons since childhood. The product of a broken home, alcoholic father and drug addict mother, he has faced greater disappointment than the selection committee could ever know.
Following a serious arm injury at age 13, having missed a full season of action, the local community raised money to send him to the Andy Murray Hockey School in Brandon, Manitoba. This was the first time away from home for Theo. It was there that Fleury met Graham James, who was working as a scout for the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL).
Graham Michael James is a former Canadian ice hockey coach for the Western Hockey League and convicted sex offender, named Man of the Year by The Hockey News in 1989 after coaching the Swift Current Broncos league championship win. This honor was later revoked by The Hockey News. James pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for molesting hockey player, Sheldon Kennedy. James admitted to molesting a second NHL player, Theo Fleury. Two additional years were added to his sentence.
Theo Fleury played 15 NHL seasons. He amassed better than a point per game in his career. He twice represented Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. His first team played in the 1987 tournament in Piešťany, Czechoslovakia. The tournament is best remembered for the "Punch-up in Piestany." An infamous bench-clearing brawl between the Canadians and the Soviet Union resulted in players from both teams being banned for international competition for 18 months. A judge reduced the suspension to six months, and Fleury led the Canadians to the 1988 world title.
The following year, Theo Fleury was a rookie on the Calgary Flames as the team won its only Stanley Cup title. He scored 33 goals in his first season and tallied 51 the next year. His career Flames scoring record was surpassed by Jarome Iginla in 2009.
In 1995, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. He also battled drug and alcohol addictions. According to Theo, he failed 13 consecutive drug tests while a member of the New York Rangers, but was not suspended because he was leading the team in scoring.
Playing with Fire became the top seller on Amazon within a week of its release, and Fleury stated that he had been contacted by several sexual abuse victims who were motivated by his book to seek help. The author, Kirstie McLellan Day adapted the autobiography into a one-man play, entitled Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story. The play made its world premiere May 1, 2012 and was also the subject of a 2012 documentary by HBO Canada.
Player - Playing ability, sportsmanship, character and contributions to his or her team or teams and to the game of hockey in general for induction.
"Off the ice should count as much as on." Fleury has raised millions in research for Crohn's disease.
Paul Murphy
Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy
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