After a 16-year wait, former Buffalo Sabres forward Alexander Mogilny has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Mogilny burst onto the scene in Buffalo in 1989, becoming the first professional hockey player to defect from the Soviet Union. Mogilny’s defection led to a surge in Russian players making their way to North America.
In 1992, Mogilny formed one of the most fearsome duos in NHL history with his center, Pat LaFontaine, scoring a league-leading 76 goals — a Sabres team record that still stands to this day.
Mogilny scored 211 goals in 381 games with Buffalo from 1989 to 1995. He would later be traded to the Vancouver Canucks in a salary-shedding move that brought the Sabres future captain Michael Peca.
The All-Star would later bounce around the NHL while still being a productive forward and won the Stanley Cup in 2001 with the New Jersey Devils. He finished his career with 1,032 points in 990 games.
Mogilny’s longtime exclusion from the Hall of Fame was controversial due to his productive peak with the Sabres and his status as a trailblazer for Russian players in the NHL.
He will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday, Nov. 10 in Toronto, alongside defensemen Zdeno Chara and Duncan Keith, forwards Joe Thornton, Jennifer Botterill and Brianna Decker, and former Boston University coach Jack Parker and former Canadian women’s hockey coach Daniele Sauvageau.