US HOCKEY ANNOUNCES HOF CLASS OF 2024

By: Luke Hanlon, For Hockey Hall of Fame

US Hockey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 announced Thursday that Matt Cullen, Brianna Decker, Frederic McLaughlin, Kevin Stevens, and the 2002 Paralympic Sled Hockey Team.

“From gold medals on the Olympic and Paralympic stage to Stanley Cup championships, this class has impacted our sport in extraordinary ways that will continue to be felt for generations to come,” said Pat Kelleher, the executive director of USA Hockey.

The Class of 2024 will be enshrined at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Celebration on Saturday, Dec. 4, in Pittsburgh.

While Cullen played for eight teams over his 21 NHL seasons, Pittsburgh holds a special place in his heart. In addition to winning two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, his three sons also found a second home in the Pittsburgh locker room and grew up in the city.

“It’s just a huge honor for me, and it’s especially great having the ceremony in Pittsburgh,” Cullen said. “So, it’ll be a special, special event, but I’m just super honored and humbled to be a part of this.”

Cullen also has deep ties to the home state of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum, which is located in Eveleth, Minnesota. Cullen grew up across the state in Moorhead and played college hockey at St. Cloud State University from 1995 to 1997.

He eventually played four seasons for the Minnesota Wild, something Cullen said he had wanted to do since watching the North Stars as a child.

“It was a little later in my career, so I could really appreciate just being at home and playing in front of friends and family, and the experience of the Wild was fantastic,” Cullen said. “It was a great way to really appreciate being a Minnesotan.

Throughout her career, Decker became synonymous with winning, winning championships at the high school, collegiate, professional, and international levels.

Decker retired from the U.S. women’s national team in 2023 with an Olympic gold medal from the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and eight world championship titles. She’s played an integral role in growing women’s hockey, which has come a long way since she grew up in Dousman, Wisconsin, playing on all boys’ teams.

“Playing with the boys growing up made me as competitive as can be, honestly,” Decker said. “Whether it was on the rink with them or playing with my brothers in street hockey, it was like I couldn’t get away from that compete level.”

Many girls in Wisconsin now can play hockey thanks to the Brianna Decker Endowment for Girls Hockey, which she started in 2019. The fund began with a focus on Wisconsin teams and now sends grants to teams throughout the country.

“Starting that up, I wanted to help the girls feel comfortable if they didn’t feel comfortable playing with the boys,” Decker said. “Some girls want to play just for fun and some want to get to the next level.”

Though McLaughlin wasn’t around to see the sport’s popularity across the Midwest, and in particular, his hometown of Chicago, his granddaughter, Castle McLaughlin, said he would have been proud of what it has become.

“He had a particular interest in advocating for American-born players, and I know he’d be very honored to be part of this class,” Castle said. “I feel that he sort of went under the radar for a while. … We’re grateful that people are once again appreciating his accomplishments”

McLaughlin, who died in 1944 at the age of 67, helped found the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1920s. His efforts to grow the game in the U.S. went far beyond just the NHL, though. As Castle noted, Frederic regularly encouraged schools around the Chicagoland area to start hockey teams, often providing those teams with equipment and jerseys to help them get started.

Long before American stars like Patrick Kane and Auston Matthews were tearing up the NHL, Stevens regularly lit the lamp in Pittsburgh while helping the Penguins win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s.

In a four-year stretch beginning in 1990–91, Stephens scored 190 goals in 315 games, including 55 goals in 1992–93 — an NHL record for an American-born player until Matthews scored 60 in 2021–22.

Considering the amount of skill in the game today, Stevens said he knew that record wouldn’t last.

“The way these guys can play now, and we all see how these guys train, and how the hockey’s just crazy good,” Stevens, originally of Pembroke, Massachusetts, said. “You always figured someone was going to come in there to break it.”

Despite playing at Boston College from 1983 to 1987 and participating in the 1988 Olympics with the U.S., Stephens said his life really started in Pittsburgh, where he made his NHL debut in 1988 and spent 10 of his 15 NHL seasons. Like Cullen, he’s excited to return to the city for the induction ceremony later this year.

Kip St. Germaine, captain of the 2002 U.S. National Sled Hockey Team, buried a penalty shot in the fourth round of the shootout to clinch the 2002 Paralympic gold medal for the Americans on home soil in Salt Lake City, Utah.

You might expect that to be the most nerve-wracking moment of St. Germaine’s career, but the native of East Falmouth, Massachusetts, said he felt calm heading into the shootout. St. Germaine had constantly practiced shooting drills with assistant coach Tommy Moulton. Therefore, he just followed Moulton’s advice when his moment came in the shootout.

“When I went out for the shootout, I was just like, ‘Tommy, where do you want me put it?’” St. Germaine recalled. “And I can’t tell you what he said, but, you know, it’s just basically, ‘Put it in the bleeping net.’”