Yzerman, Lidstrom head IIHF Hall inductees

Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom highlight a list of five players and one builder to be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in May during the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Belarus.

In addition to Yzerman and Lidstrom, the IIHF will recognize players Vyacheslav Bykov, Andrei Khomutov, Ruslan Salei and builder Murray Costello. Dr. Mark Aubry will receive the Paul Loicq Award for his contributions to international hockey.

Yzerman spent his entire 23-year professional career with the Detroit Red Wings. He was 17 when he played his first IIHF tournament, the 1983 Under-20 event in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). A few months later he was drafted by the Red Wings and made the team at his first training camp that fall.

Yzerman made Canada's roster for the 1984 Canada Cup and played in three World Championships over the next six years. He led the tournament in assists (10) and points (19) in 1990, his last World Championship as the Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Playoffs each of the next 15 seasons Yzerman played.

Yzerman was named captain of the Red Wings in 1986. He is the longest-serving captain in NHL history, wearing the "C" in Detroit every season until he retired in 2006.

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Yzerman was a key member of Canada's roster despite an injured knee. Canada won a gold medal for the first time since 1952; in the summer of 2002 he underwent knee reconstruction and missed most of the 2002-03 season but earned the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2003 for his remarkable determination in coming back from the surgery.

Lidstrom spent 20 seasons with the Wings and established himself as one of the best defensemen ever to play the game, winning seven Norris trophies. His No. 5 will be retired by the Red Wings on March 6. The last number to be retired by the Red Wings was in January 2007 when Yzerman's No. 19 was raised to the rafters.

While much of Lidstrom's success came in the NHL, he represented his native Sweden at numerous international competitions and is a member of the exclusive "Triple Gold Club," having won an Olympic gold medal with Sweden in 2006 and the World Championship title in 1991. He also won four Stanley Cup championships in Detroit.

Salei was among the members of the Kontinental Hockey League club Lokomotiv that died when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia in September 2011. He was 36 years old and left behind a wife and three children.

Selected by the Anaheim Ducks with the ninth pick of the 1996 NHL Draft, Salei finished his NHL career with 45 goals, 204 points and 1,065 penalty minutes in 917 regular-season games with the Ducks, Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche and Red Wings. He added seven goals, 16 points and 52 penalty minutes in 62 playoff games, along with a plus-15 rating. He played internationally for Belarus, serving as captain of the team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

He began his professional career playing in Belarus for Minsk Dynamo and Minsk Tivali and also played 35 games for Kazan Ak-Bars during the 2004-05 NHL work stoppage.

Bykov is a former Soviet and Russian player and former coach of the Russian national hockey team. He was a fixture on the Soviet national team in the 1980s and played for Russia in the 1990s. A ninth-round pick (No. 169) by the Quebec Nordiques in 1989, Bykov never played in the NHL. Bykov played on a sensational offensive line for the Soviet Union during the 1980s, alongside Andrei Khomutov and Valeri Kamensky. Although the three played behind the famed KLM line of Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, the Bykov line was equally impressive.

Bykov won five World Championship gold medals to complement Olympic gold in 1988 and 1992. He captained the 1992 team.

A year younger than Bykov, right wing Khomutov played at the 1981 U-20 and later in his first World Championship at the age of 19. 

Khomutov played for the Soviet Union at the 1981 Canada Cup, helping the team win the tournament after an 8-1 victory against Canada in the final game at the Montreal Forum. He won gold in each of the next three years, at the 1982 and '83 World Championships and the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics. In 123 international games over 15 years, Khomutov totaled 45 goals and 97 points. The teams he played for finished first 11 times, second twice and third twice in 16 events.

Costello had a major impact on the growth of the sport in the United States and was presented the Wayne Gretzky International Award in 2012 during the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Costello's hard work and negotiating acumen played a significant role in the Canadian Hockey Association and the formerly independent Hockey Canada organization joining forces to form an all-new organization under the name of Hockey Canada in 1994.

He also oversaw the formation of the Canadian women's team and, in turn, the rapid development of the sport that paved the way for the debut of women's hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Costello has been an extremely positive influence on hockey in the United States, helping USA Hockey and Hockey Canada collaborate on coaching education projects in the late 1970s. The basis for the U.S.-Canada junior transfer agreement also dates to Costello's cooperation with USA Hockey executives.

Costello also played in the NHL for three "Original Six" teams in the late 1950s -- the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and Red Wings.

For more than three decades Dr. Aubry has been involved in sports as a doctor in the Ottawa area and internationally at all top levels of competition. He helped organize the first three Symposia on Concussions in Sport, first in 2001 in Vienna, then 2004 in Prague and in 2008 in Zurich.

In addition to his work on concussions, Dr. Aubry made impressive contributions to the research of spinal cord injuries in sport, helped develop the Hockey Canada Safety Program and is a member of the Hockey Canada Safety Program Committee.