Hot Line First To Be Inducted Into The Winnipeg Jets Hall Of Fame

True North Sports and Entertainment and the Winnipeg Jets have finally started to recognize and honour Winnipeg Jet players of the past in a new Winnipeg Jets Hall Of Fame.  TNSE Chairman and President Mark Chipman had said repeatedly during the last five years that at the right time, the Jets 2.0 would honour key players that wore a Winnipeg Jets jersey between the years 1972, the birth of the original WHA franchise and 1996, the year of the Jets terrible, terrible relocation to Arizona.  It has been announced that Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson will be the first inductees into the Hall.

              

This a total no-brainer.  Starting with the 1974-75 World Hockey Association season these three men, known as the Hot Line,  put Winnipeg on the international hockey map.  Period.  The Winnipeg Jets broke the ceiling when they introduced the European style of hockey to North America.  Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson (along with another Swedes, defenceman Lars Eric-Schoberg and later forward Willy Lidstrom) showed the hockey world (and with great ease, I might add) the results of what gritty, tough, in-your-face Canadian style of hockey mixed with quick, concise, disciplined European hockey looks like.  Goals in the back of the net, that's what.

Not long after, even the NHL noticed and followed suit.  Soon came Borge Salming, Inge Hammarstrom, Sergei Priakhin and Veli-Pekka Ketola.  In the 1980s came Jari Kurri, the Stastnys, Esa Tikkanen and Hakan Loob.  In the 1990s there was Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Peter Forsberg, Daniel Alfredsson, Mats Sundin and Nikolas Lidstrom.  The former Czech Republic gave us Jaromir Jagr and Dominic Hasek, plus numerous former Soviet and Russian players over the years.  Of course, the Hot Line wasn't the first European influence in the National Hockey League.  There was Ulf Sterner and Lennart Svedberg.  But it was Hedberg and Nilsson along with Hull that really anchored themselves to the North American style of play and produced...huge.

The Hot Line produced nothing but offence during their time together.  When Hedberg and Nilsson were brought over from Sweden in the fall of 1975, they book-ended Hull for a combined 1287 points until the end of the 1977-78 season.  That's 1287 points between three players.  One line.  One.

Anders Hedberg:  1975   1976  1977  1978
Goals -                     53       50      70      63        
Assists -                   47       55      61      59
Points -                   100     105    131    122

Ulf Nilsson: 
Goals -                    26        38       39     37
Assists -                  94        76       85     89
Points -                  120      114     124    126

Bobby Hull:        
 Goals -                  77         53        21     46
Assists -                 65         70        32      71
Points -                 142       123       53     117

Did I mention these selections for induction were a no-brainer?

As a life-long Jets fan, it's awesome to see my heroes of the past being recognized.  Not just the Hot Line, but Jets of the 80s and 90s as well.  The next class is sure to be Dale Hawerchuck, Teemu Selanne and Thomas Steen.