Keith Tkachuk is elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame after his sons become NHL teammates

Keith Tkachuk waited more than a decade and a half from the end of his NHL playing career to get the call from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Not known for his patience, Tkachuk was so overcome with emotion that he waited 45 minutes to tell his family.

鈥淚 said, 鈥楬ey, you guys want to have a beer together?鈥欌€� Tkachuk recalled. 鈥淎nd I told them and broke the news to them there.鈥�

The timing gave them even more reason to celebrate. Tkachuk was elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday, less than 24 hours after his sons became teammates when from Ottawa to Florida, joining older brother Matthew, during a weekend that also included a celebration and a baptism.

鈥淚t’s been a great weekend for the Tkachuks,鈥� Keith said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a crazy weekend, but this tops it off. … This is the ultimate, for sure.鈥�

The patriarch nicknamed 鈥淲alt鈥� Tkachuk is part of a player class that includes center Patrice Bergeron, who won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward six times, and goaltenders Carey Price from Montreal and Pekka Rinne from Nashville.

U.S. women鈥檚 hockey pioneer Cindy Curley and executive Brian Burke in the builder category also are set to be inducted on Nov. 9 at a ceremony in Toronto.

Tkachuk was one of the premier power forwards of his era, playing in the 1990s and 2000s as part of the first great generation of American pro players. He recorded 1,121 points in 1,290 games, counting the playoffs, with Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis and Atlanta, and was part of the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Bergeron, who spent his entire career with the Bruins, was chosen in his first year of eligibility. Price and Rinne were selected in their second, with Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind’Amour among those passed over again.

鈥淵ou knew what you were going to get every single time you played against him: You had to dig in,鈥� Tkachuk said of Brind’Amour, fresh off coaching Carolina to the Stanley Cup two decades after captaining the Hurricanes to a championship. 鈥淗ats off to him. He鈥檒l be here, there鈥檚 no doubt in my mind, as a player and as a builder.鈥�

Price and Bergeron played together on Canada’s 2014 Olympic gold medal-winning team. That was during Price’s prime, which included winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, Vezina as top goalie and the Lester B. Pearson as the most outstanding player as voted by his peers following a dominant 2014-15 season with the Canadiens.

鈥淒uring Carey’s heyday, every goalie wanted to play like him,鈥� said Rinne, who is the first player to make the Hall of Fame after spending his entire career with the Predators and is ranked in the top 25 in wins, save percentage and shutouts in league history.

Curley skated in the first International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship in 1990. Her 11 goals, 12 assists and 23 points in five games remain single-tournament records, and she’ll be the 15th women’s player to go in the Hall at a peak of the sport with .

鈥淲hen I was playing, I was I hopeful I could play on a girls team at some point,鈥� Curley said. 鈥淪eeing it progress to Olympics and now the professional (level) and seeing how great the players are, it鈥檚 just wonderful.鈥�

Burke won the Stanley Cup as Anaheim’s general manager in 2007, one of several front-office stops for him, along with time spent as the NHL’s director of hockey operations. Burke also took on a leading role in and was a longtime advocate of the women’s game, including a stint as executive director of the PWHL Players Association.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e on the same level for me,鈥� Burke said of the Cup and his off-ice advocacy. 鈥淭hat was just as important as anything else I鈥檝e ever worked on.鈥�

___

AP NHL: