The EURO League Hall of Fame was established at the beginning of Season 5 in an existing building that stretches the length of Strobelgasse Street, between Schulerstrasse and Wollzeile, in Vienna, Austria. Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time.

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Hall of Fame Members

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Zdeno Chara – After playing in New York, Ottawa and Boston in the NHL, Chara went home to play in the EURO League with Bratislava in his native Slovakia. He was immediately named captain of the Eagles, a title he held for four seasons until his retirement at age 38. Chara used his immense size and 6-9 height to its fullest advantage, making it as difficult as possible for opposing forwards to get to goalie Craig Anderson and the other Bratislava goalies. Chara recorded between 230 and 248 hits and between 85 and 95 shot blocks every year of his career. When he retired, he ranked 5th all-time in hits and he was in the top 10 all-time in terms of defenseman goals and points. He was voted in as a starter for the first two all-star games and his best season came in Season 2 when he scored 67 points and won the league’s Best Defenseman Trophy. In his final season, at age 37, Chara scored 11 goals and 39 points and he placed 7th in the league – 3rd among defensemen – in plus-minus with a +39 rating.

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Nicklas Lidstrom – After a stellar career in the NHL where he made countless fans across North America, Lidstrom led the Generals to a championship in the league’s first year. That season, the 41-year-old defenseman logged 26 minutes per game and scored 13 goals and 45 points in 72 games. He blocked 107 shots and his +23 defensive play and on-ice leadership translated into team wins on a regular basis. League GMs voted him into the first all-star game held in the EURO League and in the Generals’ successful playoff run, he scored 13 points in 20 games and had twice as many takeaways as giveaways. His most memorable goal came in Game 2 of Geneva’s conference finals playoff series against Munich when Lidstrom’s slapshot beat Jonathan Quick in the 112th minute of a triple overtime game to give Geneva a 2-0 lead in the series. The next season was the last for the legendary Swede. He ended his career with 35 points in 63 regular season games and 8 points in 12 playoff games.

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Teemu Selanne – The right wing from Finland was known as one of the best goal scorers in NHL history and was always regarded as a gentleman and good ambassador for the sport. In the EURO League, he was a teammate of Lidstrom’s on Geneva’s Cup champion team, scoring 24 goals and 69 points as a 41-year-old. Like Lidstrom, he was a +23 player that season. In the playoffs, he was also a +23, but in only 21 games. He scored 26 points in those 21 games, including 11 goals, and he was a driving force for the team. Selanne and Lidstrom formed a strong and obviously effective leadership team. In the Northern Conference Finals, against Munich, it was Selanne’s goal with 1:40 remaining in Game 6 that pushed Geneva into the finals against Copenhagen.  Selanne took a pass from Mike Fisher, slipped past Munich defenseman Mike Commodore, and snapped a wrist shot to beat Jonathan Quick on the blocker side. The next season, Selanne opted to play for Gothenburg and his final season was marked by 61 points in 80 games as a 42-year-old.

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Jimmy Howard – The first goalie to be elected to the Hall, Howard never won a EURO Cup, but he was an all-star three times and he definitely won his share of hardware: 3 Best Goalie trophies; 3 Best Save Percentage trophies; and 2 Best Goals Against Average trophies. Howard started his career as a late 3rd Round pick for Oslo and was traded in Season 3 for Simeon Varlamov and Jarko Immonen to Berlin, helping them reaching the Finals two seasons later. But in his 5th season in Germany, he was supplanted by Calvin Pickard and he signed on with Athens in Season 8. That’s when the Gods enjoyed their best years. They finished 2nd and then 1st in the league with Howard in goal and he won 49 and 45 games those years. Howard’s final season was the only season in which he didn’t see playoff hockey. His career goals against average through 615 games was 2.67 (3.04 in 107 playoff games) and his save percentage finished at 90.6. At the end of Season 12, which was two years after he retired, Howard ranked second all-time in goals against average, sixth in save percentage and fifth in both games played and shutouts.

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Jonathan Quick – Quick, an American who first made a name for himself as a Los Angeles Kings goalie in the NHL, was spectacular in his time with the Belfast Giants in the EURO. When the league’s initial draft was held, Munich drafted Quick third overall. In Season 4, he was traded to Belfast and skated off with the EURO Cup at the end of the season. Then they won it again the next season … and two seasons after that .. and two seasons after that with Quick in goal. In 601 games, his GAA was 2.48 and his save percentage was .913. In the playoffs, he was a little harder to beat: a 2.46 GAA and .916 save percentage through 156 games. His personal trophy case includes 10 pieces of hardware: 4 Playoff MVP trophies, 2 Best Goalie honors, 3 Best Goals Against Average trophies and 1 Best Save Percentage honor. He was also voted to the All-Star Game six times.

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Evgeni Malkin – When the EURO began, Evgeni Malkin was 25 and had already made a name for himself as an elite talent in the NHL. But he came with some doubts about his commitment to defensive hockey and he came with an $8.7 million price tag. As a result, 84 players went before him in the initial draft before Paris grabbed him in Round 4 as the team’s first forward. A season later, Malkin and the Rouge Eiffels won the Cup and he was much loved in France from that point on. In Season 3, he was voted Player of the Year and he led the league in scoring with 121 points. And he was a thorn in the side to every other team in the league, so much so that he was dubbed “Damn Malkin” by a GM with a terrible attitude. In his 9 seasons with Paris, Malkin averaged 101.7 points per season and he finished his career with 1,134 points, which was 19th on the all-time list, although Connor McDavid was just 10 points behind him and gaining with 6 games remaining in Season 18. The Russian also played for St. Petersburg, Dublin and Belfast.

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Erik Karlsson – Erik Karlsson retired after 17 seasons in the league ranked second all-time among all defensemen in points, goals, assists, and takeaways, but he is the all-time leader in blocked shots with 1,742 in 1,368 career games. He averaged 102.5 blocked shots per season. Karlsson averaged 52.9 points per season and he scored 20 or more goals in 3 different seasons. His plus/minus of +281 and his +164 turnover ratio are also among the best ever. Karlsson was a fresh-faced and promising 21-year-old when Madrid drafted him 10th overall in the league’s initial draft. He played 8 seasons with the Royals and then was part of two major multi-player trades that took him first to the Belfast Giants and a Cup win in Season 9, and then to Paris for a 6-year stint before he joined Helsinki for the final 2 seasons of his career. Karlsson dominated the league’s All-Star Game and the Skills Competition. He was voted onto all-star game rosters 11 times, and he made it to the podium in Accuracy Shooting and/or Fastest Skater 11 times from Season 1 to Season 13.

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Anze Kopitar – The well-rounded Slovenian center was named to the All-Star Game 7 times and he won two EURO Cups – first with Moscow in Season 3 and then 12 seasons later with Helsinki. In the league’s initial draft, Moscow took him 14th overall, a pick after Alex Pietrangelo was taken and just ahead of Alexander Ovechkin and John Tavares. After 5-and-a-third seasons in Moscow, he was traded to Athens for the next 5-and-two-thirds seasons. Then in Season 12, he signed with Helsinki and was immediately magnificent. He scored 46 goals and 116 points, leading the league in both categories. He was also voted as the Best Defensive forward that season and – no surprise here – Player of the Year. Add those four trophies to the Sportsmanship trophy he won with Athens, and Kopitar has five trophies in his display case at home. He scored 1,227 points in 1,189 career games in the EURO and 184 playoff points in 188 games. Kopitar had exactly 500 more takeaways than he had giveaways.

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Jonathan Toews – Jonathan Toews was one of the best faceoff artists and penalty killers the league ever saw. He was also a worry for defenders and a strong two-way center. When he was 23, the center was drafted by Bratislava at #5 overall in the league’s initial draft. Toews played 11 seasons in Slovakia and led the team in scoring every year but one, often with Marian Hossa as one of his wingmen. In Season 12, he signed with Helsinki and they were Cup runners-up his first 2 years there, then he hopped over to Oslo for a season and back to Helsinki and his lone Cup win in Season 15. In Season 17, he signed with Paris, but was traded back to Bratislava for 33 games and he retired with the team that drafted him. The EURO’s all-time leader in shorthanded goals played 1,309 games in his career and scored 1,428 points with a +287 rating and +506 turnover ratio. In 207 playoff games, he had 207 points. His lifetime 58.5 faceoff win percentage is 2nd all-time among players who have won more than 10,000 faceoffs, and he also won a Sportsmanship trophy and a Best Defensive Forward trophy.

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Chuck Massaro – Massaro was a surprise inductee to the Hall, being voted in by other league GMs via a Websim story published on April 15, 2015. One of the founding members of the league and its only commissioner to date, Massaro initiated some features that most other Websim leagues do not have, such as a blog covering league events, an annual all-star game, a draft guide and the Hall of Fame.