This year's Hockey Hall of Fame inductees are certainly worthy of the honor. No one disputes that Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens belongs there.

Yet there are several former great players who are not in the Hall who clearly should be.

I'm not referring to players like Steve Yzerman or Brett Hull, as they won't reach their first year of eligibility for the Hall until next year, but rather long-retired players whose careers are certainly Hall-worthy but have yet to receive recognition.

Glenn Anderson was a teammate of Messier's in Edmonton and New York and won the same number of Stanley Cups. He had 496 goals and 1099 points in 1129 regular season game, as well as 93 goals and 214 points in 225 playoff games, including five overtime goals.

Steve Larmer also won a Stanley Cup with Messier and Anderson with the NY Rangers. He also won the Calder as rookie of the year in 1983, had 441 goals and 1012 points in 1006 regular season games, and 56 goals and 131 points in 140 playoff games.

Butch Goring was one of the best two-way centers in NHL history. In a career that stretched from 1969 to 1985 Goring had 888 points in 1107 regular season games and 88 points in 134 playoff games. He won four Stanley Cups with the NY Islanders in the early 1980s, as well as individual accolades like the Masterton and Lady Byng trophies in 1978 and the Conn Smythe as the 1981 playoff MVP.

Dino Ciccarelli was a chippy player but also one of the league's most consistent scorers. From 1980 to 1999 Ciccarelli scored 608 goals and 1200 points in 1232 game and had 73 goals and 118 points in 141 playoff games.

Doug Jarvis was one of the NHL's top defensive forwards in the 1970s and '80s. He played on four Stanley Cup championship teams in Montreal, won the Selke trophy in 1984, the Masterton trophy in 1987 and holds the NHL's "Ironman" record of 960 consecutive games played.

Rogatien Vachon played on three Stanley Cup winners with the Montreal Canadiens and shared the Vezina Trophy in 1968 with teammate Gump Worsley as the league's top goaltenders. Traded to the LA Kings in 1971, he was widely considered one of the NHL's top goaltenders, and backstopped Team Canada to victory in the 1976 Canada Cup.

Rick Middleton was one of the most explosive wingers in NHL history, notching 448 goals and 988 points in 1005 regular season games and 100 points in 157 playoff games in a career spent mostly with the Boston Bruins. He won the Lady Byng trophy in 1982.

Brian Propp spent the bulk of his NHL career with the Philadelphia Flyers and during the 1980s was one of their brightest stars. In 1016 regular season games Propp had 425 goals and 1004 points, and 64 goals and 148 points in 160 playoff games.

Mark Howe split his 22-year professional career between the WHA and NHL, and proved to be a great defenseman in both leagues. He had 504 points in 426 WHA regular season games and 92 points in 75 playoff games, and 742 points in 929 NHL regular season game along with 61 points in 101 playoff games.

Alexander Yakushev and Boris Mikhailov were major stars of Soviet and international hockey in the 1970s, becoming household names in Canada along with Vladislav Tretiak and Valery Kharlomov during the famous 1972 Summit Series. They blazed the trail for future Russian NHL superstars.

Carl Brewer was one of the top defensemen in the NHL during the 1960s, helping the Toronto Maple Leafs win three Stanley Cups early in that decade. He would also go on to promote hockey in Finland and thanks to his tireless efforts in retirement helped to bring former NHLPA director Alan Eagleson to justice for mail fraud and forced the league into repaying retired players millions of dollars in pension money owed to them.

I've yet to hear an adequate reason why those players continue to be passed over. It makes no sense that these great players continue to be overlooked by the HHOF selection committee year after year.