Six people were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame for 2026: Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk and Cindy Curley as players, and Brian Burke as a builder. The class was announced on 22 June 2026 and will be inducted in Toronto on 9 November 2026, at the end of an induction weekend that runs from the 7th.
Bergeron went in on the first ballot. Tkachuk went in on his fourteenth year of eligibility. Rinne is the first Finnish goaltender elected.
Who was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2026?
Six, in two categories. Patrice Bergeron, a center who won six Selke Trophies, more than anyone, was elected in his first year of eligibility. Carey Price was elected in his second. Pekka Rinne became the first Finnish goaltender in the Hall. Keith Tkachuk, one of the three highest-scoring American-born players by goals, was elected in his fourteenth year of eligibility. Cindy Curley, a forward whose career was built on college and international hockey in an era with no women’s professional league, waited roughly three decades. Brian Burke went in as a builder, having spent years on the Hall’s own selection committee.
Every Hockey Hall of Fame class since 2010
Sixteen classes, not seventeen. No class was elected in 2021, when the election was canceled, and the 2020 class was inducted instead.
| Year | Players | Builders / officials |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Patrice Bergeron, Cindy Curley, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk | Brian Burke |
| 2025 | Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Joe Thornton, Jennifer Botterill, Brianna Decker | Jack Parker, Daniele Sauvageau |
| 2024 | Natalie Darwitz, Pavel Datsyuk, Jeremy Roenick, Shea Weber, Krissy Wendell-Pohl | Colin Campbell, David Poile |
| 2023 | Tom Barrasso, Henrik Lundqvist, Caroline Ouellette, Pierre Turgeon, Mike Vernon | Ken Hitchcock, Pierre Lacroix |
| 2022 | Daniel Alfredsson, Roberto Luongo, Riikka Sallinen, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin | Herb Carnegie |
| 2020 | Marian Hossa, Jarome Iginla, Kevin Lowe, Kim St-Pierre, Doug Wilson | Ken Holland |
| 2019 | Guy Carbonneau, Vaclav Nedomansky, Hayley Wickenheiser, Sergei Zubov | Jim Rutherford, Jerry York |
| 2018 | Martin Brodeur, Jayna Hefford, Martin St. Louis, Alexander Yakushev | Gary Bettman, Willie O’Ree |
| 2017 | Dave Andreychuk, Danielle Goyette, Paul Kariya, Mark Recchi, Teemu Selanne | Clare Drake, Jeremy Jacobs |
| 2016 | Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov, Rogatien Vachon | Pat Quinn |
| 2015 | Sergei Fedorov, Phil Housley, Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger, Angela Ruggiero | Bill Hay, Peter Karmanos Jr. |
| 2014 | Rob Blake, Peter Forsberg, Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano | Pat Burns, Bill McCreary |
| 2013 | Chris Chelios, Geraldine Heaney, Scott Niedermayer, Brendan Shanahan | Fred Shero |
| 2012 | Pavel Bure, Adam Oates, Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin | None |
| 2011 | Ed Belfour, Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe, Joe Nieuwendyk | None |
| 2010 | Dino Ciccarelli, Cammi Granato, Angela James | Jim Devellano, Daryl Seaman |
Who votes for the Hockey Hall of Fame?
An eighteen-member selection committee, chaired by Ron Francis. Six members are appointed each year to three-year terms, and a member may serve fifteen years. Election requires 75% of the members present, which in practice means fourteen of eighteen, on a secret ballot. The rest of the process is closed in a way that surprises people used to baseball: deliberations are confidential, there is no public ballot, vote totals are never released, and the names of candidates who were considered and not elected are never disclosed. So you can’t check any claim that a particular player was on the ballot. The Hall publishes its election procedures but not its votes.
How many people can be elected each year?
A maximum of four male players, two female players, and either two builders or one builder plus one referee or linesperson, as NHL.com sets out. Eight is therefore the ceiling, and 2025 is the only recent class to reach it. Players and officials must wait three years: the rule is that they must not have played in a professional or international game in any of the three seasons before election. Builders have no waiting period at all, which is how a sitting NHL commissioner was inducted in 2018. The three-year wait has been waived ten times in the Hall’s history, the last of them for Wayne Gretzky in 1999, and the board has since ruled that no further waivers will be granted.
How many people are in the Hockey Hall of Fame?
More than 460. The Hall’s own published totals say 445, made up of 310 players, 119 builders, and 16 referees and linespersons, but those figures have not been updated for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 classes. Adding the three verified classes to the Hall’s baseline gives 326 players, 124 builders and 16 officials, for 466.
The officials figure is the one to notice: it has not moved since Bill McCreary was elected in 2014, so no on-ice official has entered the Hall in twelve years, and Kerry Fraser, who worked more than 1,900 NHL games and a dozen Cup Finals, is not in it.
How many women are in the Hockey Hall of Fame?
Sixteen, of whom fifteen are players and one is a builder. Angela James and Cammi Granato were the first, both in 2010, and Daniele Sauvageau became the first woman elected as a builder in 2025. The number is low for a reason that is structural rather than historical. Women are not in a separate category; they are players, subject to a separate quota of two per year introduced in 2010. Across the sixteen election years from 2010 to 2026 that quota made 32 places available, and fifteen were used. Seventeen went empty. Both places have been filled only twice, in 2024 and 2025, and the 2026 class went back to one. Jennifer Botterill’s twelve-year wait is generally attributed to the backlog this creates.
Who is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame?
Paul Henderson is the longest-standing omission, eligible since 1983 and still waiting after more than four decades, on a case that rests almost entirely on scoring the winning goals in the last three games of the 1972 Summit Series. Among more recent players, the names raised most often are Patrick Marleau, who has played more NHL games than anyone at 1,779, Rod Brind’Amour, Henrik Zetterberg, Patrik Elias, Curtis Joseph, Theoren Fleury and John LeClair. On the women’s side, the absences are sharper because of the quota: Noora Räty, a five-time world championship best goaltender, was left out in 2026 while the second female place went unused, and Shannon Szabados and Meghan Duggan have waited years. Be wary of older lists of Hall of Fame snubs. Alexander Mogilny, Jeremy Roenick, Pierre Turgeon and Keith Tkachuk all appeared on them and all have since been elected.
Is the Hockey Hall of Fame only for NHL players?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about it. The Hall honors international, amateur, women’s, and pre-NHL hockey, and its bylaws have no minimum number of NHL games.
Alexander Yakushev was elected in 2018 without ever playing an NHL game, based on his career in the Soviet Union. Cindy Curley’s 2026 election rests on college and international hockey. Vaclav Nedomansky went in for Czechoslovak hockey as much as for his NHL years. The game thresholds that appear on the Hall of Fame’s eligibility page, 850 games for skaters and 500 for goaltenders, are how it builds its candidate lists rather than a rule anyone must meet.
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