Last September I identified 40 active players currently in the NHL whom I projected would someday become Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) inductees, based on the rationale was that there were theoretically between 37.5 and 56.25 future HHOFers playing the NHL right now. My surmise was a relative simple one, using past HHOF induction rates (3.75 players per year on average), average career lengths for HHOFers (13.77 seasons) and creating a margin of error. But while a workable and logical hypothesis, how does such guesswork measure up to reality?

Congratulations to the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) Class of 2009!

While there were no surprises on the selections among players - Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Luc Robitaille were the early and constant favourites - it was a pleasant surprise to see the election of New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello as a builder. An excellent selection and a well deserved honour.

FoxSports.com is undergoing an online community upgrade between June 25 and July 1, and during that time any postings made to this blog (including comments) will be lost in the ether. I've prepared more thoughts to share - covering the HHOF Class of 2009, the NHL Entry Draft, an updated Top 40 Potential HHOFers among active players, and other HHOF-related research - but I'm going to hold off posting those items until the FoxSports.com upgrade is complete because I value your feedback and don't want it to vanish.

Thanks very much for reading and we'll see you in a week!

In developing my system for identifying and rating NHL careers worthy of Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) recognition, I've been looking for standards and mileposts that we can use as reliable indicators. With the NHL awards presented tonight, let's consider the value that winning two of the top awards - the Hart Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy - may have on a player's chances for induction to the HHOF.

The Hart Trophy was first given out in the 1923-24 season. 51 different players have won the award in the 85 seasons it has been presented. 10 recipients are still active in hockey while 41 Hart-winners are now retired. Of this retired group, 38 past-winners are eligible for the HHOF and 36 have actually made the grade, a success rate of 94.7 percent.

The two Hart winners who've failed to gain entry to the HHOF thus far are defenseman Tom Anderson (first eligible for the HHOF in 1950) and goaltender Al Rollins (first eligible for the HHOF in 1965). Anderson entered the army immediately after his Hart win in 1941-42 and never furthered his NHL career. Rollins won his Hart not so much for greatness as endurance, having suffered a league-leading 47 losses with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1953-54. I'll save a more detailed discussion of these two players for another time.

When you look at the remaining 13 active or recently-retired players who've been awarded the Hart, all seem likely HHOF inductees with the exception of Jose Theodore, whose Hart season seems more and more like an aberration. (Theodore also merits a detailed discussion of his own.) Among the recently-retired, Brett Hull will undoubtedly be voted into the HHOF next week, while Eric Lindros should make the grade when he becomes eligible in 2010, as should two-time winner Dominik Hasek when he becomes eligible in 2011 (or 2013 if plays in the Czech Republic next season). Hart winners among active players include Theodore, Sidney Crosby, Sergei Fedorov, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin (winning his second Hart tonight), Chris Pronger, Joe Sakic, Martin St. Louis and Joe Thornton.

The Art Ross Trophy seems to be an even better indicator of eventual HHOF entry. First awarded in 1947-48, 24 players have won the award in the 61 years it has been presented. 8 recipients are still active, while the 16 retired winners have all been inducted into the HHOF, a 100 percent success rate.

If you take into consideration the league points leaders from the pre-Art Ross Trophy period going all the way back to 1917-18 and grant them the award retroactively, you'll find there have been 45 winners, 37 of whom are eligible for the HHOF and 36 of whom have been inducted (a 97.3 percent success rate).

The only outlier is left wing Herb Cain (first eligible for the HHOF in 1953), who won the 1943-44 scoring race in a wartime talent-depleted league. Like Anderson and Rollins above, we'll examine Cain's career in depth another time.

Looking at the 8 active players who've won the Art Ross, all seem likely HHOF inductees. As discussed previously, 6 of these players - Sidney Crosby, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin, Martin St. Louis and Joe Thornton - have also won the Hart Trophy, helping improve their eventual HHOF selection odds. The other two active Art Ross winners have also made Hart attacks:  Jarome Iginla narrowly lost the Hart to Jose Theodore in 2001-02, while Evgeni Malkin was a Hart finalist for 2008-09.

There are 240 players currently enshrined in the HHOF. 192 of them have played in the NHL. Given that just a quarter of those NHL players inducted have led the league in scoring and/or have the won the league MVP award, it's clear that you do not have to meet either of those standards to become a HHOFer. But it is equally clear that any player who can claim either of those awards on his resume is in an enviable position for potential HHOF induction.