Hitchcock, Turgeon inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame

Ken Hitchcock and Pierre Turgeon will return to Enterprise Center and be celebration their Hockey Hall of Fame induction at the Nov. 30 game against the Buffalo Sabres. Tickets for the game are available now on ticketmaster.com.

In history, only 26 members of the St. Louis Blues — 23 players and three coaches — have received hockey’s highest honor by being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

On Monday night, three more former Blues were inducted — coach Ken Hitchcock, forward Pierre Turgeon and goaltender Tom Barrasso entered the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the seven-person Class of 2023.

Ken Hitchcock

Hitchcock was hired by the Blues in November 2011. At that time, the Blues were 6-7-0 to begin the season, hadn’t made the playoffs in three years and hadn't won a playoff series since 2002.

General Manager Doug Armstrong, then in his second season with the Blues, turned to an old friend. After winning a Stanley Cup together in Dallas, Armstrong brought in Hitchcock to give his young team the spark it needed.

The Blues would finish 43-15-11 that year, finishing just two points shy of winning the Presidents’ Trophy. 'Hitch' would take home the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year, and the Blues would win a playoff series for the first time in a decade.

The Blues made the playoffs in each of Hitchcock’s six years as coach, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2017. He won 248 games behind the Blues’ bench, the second-most of any coach in franchise history. Hitchcock also had additional stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers. His 849 career wins are the fourth-most in NHL history, and he’s one of seven people to have coached at least 1,500 games.

Hitchcock also did plenty on the international stage. In four Olympics, he won three gold medals as an associate coach for Canada. He won three more — two gold and one silver — between the IIHF Ice Hockey Men’s World Championship, IIHF World Junior Championship and World Cup of Hockey.

Pierre Turgeon

Turgeon was a model of consistency throughout his career. He scored 20-plus goals in 13 of his 19 NHL seasons, including in every one while wearing the Blue Note. He scored at least 65 points in each of those five years, including a 30-goal, 52-assist campaign in 2000-01.

Turgeon, the first overall pick in the 1987 NHL Draft, spent the first nine years of his career with the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens. In that time, Turgeon appeared in four All-Star Games and was awarded the 1992-93 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as an Islander.

Turgeon was traded to the Blues from Montreal in 1996. For the next five seasons, he’d finish with either the most or second-most points on Blues squads that featured legends like Brett Hull, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Pavol Demitra and Grant Fuhr. Turgeon’s teams made the playoffs every year, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2000-01.

He split the rest of his career between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche before retiring in 2007.

Turgeon retired with 515 career goals. Only 41 players in NHL history have reached that mark, and of that group, only three eligible players have not yet made the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Tom Barrasso

Barrasso was only a Blue for six games, but he still posted an incredible 19-year career, primarily with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres. He was a three-time All-Star, two-time Stanley Cup champion and notably won both the Calder Memorial Trophy and Vezina Trophy in the same season.