Just over a month after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, women’s hockey icon Angela Ruggiero received another hall call. Ruggiero, along with former NHLers Chris Drury and Mathieu Schneider and recently retired USA Hockey president Ron DeGregorio, will be part of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
Angela Ruggiero
Ruggiero will have a busy year of honors on top of her already busy schedule as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s board of directors. She'll go into Toronto's Hockey Hall alongside players Nicklas Lidstrom, Phil Housley, Sergei Fedorov, Chris Pronger in November. The following month she'll head back to Boston to go into the U.S. Hockey Hall.
Before retiring from the women’s national team in 2011, Ruggiero became one of the best defensemen in the history of women’s hockey over a 15-year international career.
Ruggiero has played in more games for Team USA than any player, man or woman, in the country’s history. As a teenager, she was part of the pioneering 1998 U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team that won the gold medal, the first in that events history. She also helped Team USA win gold at the Women’s World Championship four times and was named that tournament’s top defenseman on four occasions. Over those 256 games in a U.S. jersey, Ruggiero notched 208 points.
In addition to her gold in 1998, Ruggiero also won Olympic silver twice (2002, 2010) and a bronze in 2006.
In 2005, Ruggiero became the first female non-goalie to play in a men’s professional game in North America when she skated for the Central Hockey League’s Tulsa Oilers. She and brother Bill became the first brother-sister tandem to ever play in a pro game together.
On top of her international accolades, Ruggiero was named the top women’s college hockey player in the country in 2004. She also helped Harvard win the 1999 women’s hockey national championship.
Chris Drury
After retiring from the NHL after the 2010-11 season, Drury didn’t have to wait long to reach the U.S. Hockey Hall. Over his long hockey career, Drury amassed a number of awards, championships and accomplishments.
Drury is the only player in hockey history to win the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as college hockey’s top player and follow that up by winning the NHL’s Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year. He also has won both an NCAA national championship and the Stanley Cup.
The former Boston University Terrier set the school’s all-time record with 113 career goals. He also notched 214 points in 155 games. Drury followed up his illustrious college career with a pretty solid run in the NHL.
Drury played four seasons with the Colorado Avalanche, winning the Calder after notching 20 goals and 44 points in his rookie season in 1998-99. He hit at least 20 goals nine times, setting his career best with 37 during the 2006-07 season with the Buffalo Sabres.
The Turnbull, Conn., native also played a star role in the Avalanche’s run to the 2001 Stanley Cup, notching 11 goals in 23 postseason contests.
In all, Drury played in 892 NHL games with stops in Colorado, Buffalo, with the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers. He notched 255 goals and 615 points before calling it quits at age 34.
Drury also appeared in three Olympics, winning silver twice (2002, 2010), and was also part of numerous World Championship events including the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
Mathieu Schneider
Schneider heads to the USHHOF after a well-traveled career that began with a seven-season run with the Montreal Canadiens. While there, Schneider helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 19993. He would enjoy a career that spanned 1,289 games, which ranks third among all American-born defensemen.
The New York City native compiled 743 points over his lengthy career which included stops with the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks and Atlanta Thrashers.
Schneider is also yet another member of the famous 1996 World Cup of Hockey team to be enshrined to the U.S. Hockey Hall. He played in seven games during that tournament, which ended with the U.S. claiming its most significant tournament victory since the Miracle on Ice. He is also a two-time Olympian.
Now an executive within the NHL Players Association, Schneider remains close to the game.
Ron DeGregorio
After a 12-year run as president of USA Hockey, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., DeGregorio will take his rightful spot in the USHHOF. His involvement in hockey spans more than 40 years, primarily as a volunteer.
Participation in hockey grew significantly during DeGregorio’s run, with playing membership rising year after year. The executive also had a huge hand in starting USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program which has churned out such players as Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel and Ryan Suter. DeGregorio was also a driving force in the implementation of the revolutionary “American Development Model” which USA Hockey instituted in the later 2000s to focus more on youth hockey’s development. It is now being replicated by a number of other governing bodies including the U.S. Olympic Committee.
DeGregorio, better known as “Digger” throughout the hockey world, first began with USA Hockey in 1973. Among his other roles in hockey, he was a co-owner of the now defunct, but awesomely-named Kentucky Thoroughblades of the American Hockey League.
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2015 will be enshrined Dec. 17 in Boston.
