Hockey Hall of Fame tiers: Which current NHL players will make it?

The Hockey Hall of Fame can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class.

Based on how many current NHL players could be worthy of a plaque in Toronto — and how many qualified candidates are still waiting for the call — the Hall will not suffer from a lack of choices.

Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. There are about a dozen locks, joining recently retired icons like Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and Duncan Keith in line for immortality. There are dozens more that are still building their cases, as well as veterans that are stuck between all-time greatness and the “Hall of Very Good.”

Let’s begin with the two players who have defined hockey this century: