Is Daniel Alfredsson a Hall of Famer?

Now that the reunion has happened and the goodbyes have been said and the wistful acknowledgements of his contributions on and off the ice have been completed, let’s get down to immortality, shall we?

Is Daniel Alfredsson a Hall of Famer?

He’s borderline, for sure. Without question the best player in Ottawa Senators history, and if not a star player during his tenure then one of the NHL’s elite wingers.

Here’s what Alfredsson accomplished in the NHL:

Don't let the career ranks fool you. In every category, he's surrounded by players in the Hall or headed there.

The career point total ranks him between Bobby Hull and Michel Goulet, both Hall of Famers but both of whom played fewer games than did Alfredsson. Ditto Sergei Fedorov, who was 22 points better than Alfie.

The points-per-game average puts him right with another borderline player in Mark Recchi (0.928); but we’ve long thought that Recchi gets in because his overall point (1,533, 12th all-time) and goal total (577) are much more impressive than, say, Afredsson’s. Longevity, man. All hail the Recchin’ Ball.

Another thing Recchi and Glenn Anderson, who ranks behind Alfredsson in points, have are the championships. Yes, it’s a nebulous concept, this idea that team accomplishment should somehow influence individual honors. But we’re all lying if we say it doesn’t put certain players, like Anderson, over the top.

Alfredsson does have an Olympic gold and silver, and two silvers and two bronzes at worlds. And he does have the Calder Trophy from 1996.

He’s not in my Hall of Fame, but my Hall of Fame would only have roughly the 10 best players in a given era.

Will he be in the Hockey Hall of Fame? I’d say no, but there’s always the Federko Clause which is reserved for players with great-but-not-immortal stats who had the misfortune of playing with an also-ran for his entire career.