Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Roads for: Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price and: Pekka Rinne they were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But the trio’s respective paths to Monday night’s booking in Toronto were also important stops in the AHL as top prospects. As the AHL has increasingly intensified its focus on player development over the decades, the league’s presence among the game’s greats continues to grow. Bergeron, Price and Rinne are part of a wave of top talent that came through the AHL in the 2000s before moving on to NHL and international success.
How deep was that talent in the decade that the AHL took over as the NHL’s sole premier development league? Consider this. The Hershey Bears had to face Rinne (2006) and Price (2007) in back-to-back Calder Cup Finals.
In total, 140 players, coaches, officials and managers with ties to the American Hockey League have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Patrice Bergeron
Most of the long list of Providence alumni who found success with the Boston Bruins first started in the AHL.
Bergeron, who ended up playing 19 seasons in Boston before retiring in 2023, took a slight detour to the AHL instead. A second-round draft pick in 2003, he made the NHL roster as an 18-year-old that fall and had a standout season. However, the 2004-05 NHL lockout left Bergeron without a playing spot.
The NHL allowed young prospects to sign AHL deals so they wouldn’t lose a year of development. Bergeron joined Providence and quickly adjusted to the AHL game. He was selected to the AHL All-Star Classic and finished with 61 points (21 goals, 40 assists) in 68 games. But that deep, tough Providence team had even more success in the Calder Cup playoffs. They swept the eventual champion Philadelphia Phantoms to six games in the Eastern Conference Finals as Bergeron contributed 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 16 postseason contests.
Bergeron’s streak with Boston included 1,040 points (427 goals and 613 assists) in 1,294 games, a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and six Selke trophies. He also represented Canada at the international level, winning an Olympic gold medal in 2010 and 2014, as well as an IIHF World Championship gold medal in 2004.
The accolades aren’t over for Bergeron, either. Boston will retire his No. 37 at TD Garden on Dec. 1.
Carey Price
Price made his stay in the AHL short but memorable.
Drafted fifth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2005 NHL Draft, Price had already become a top name at the junior level. He led Canada to a gold medal and was named Most Valuable Player at the 2007 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship and had four outstanding seasons with Tri-City of the Western Hockey League, being named the Canadian Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Year.
But Price was just getting started.
The 19-year-old made his professional debut with the Bulldogs on April 13, 2007, making 27 saves against the visiting Grand Rapids Griffins. He was injected as the Bulldogs’ playoff starter and opened the postseason with a 34-save shutout at Rochester. From there, he led Hamilton to the Calder Cup final against the formidable Hershey club in the midst of four finals appearances in five years. Price snapped the Bulldogs’ five-game winning streak, earning Jack A.
He played another 10 games for Hamilton as a follow-up in 2007-08 before securing a full-time job with the Canadiens. Price, who retires in 2022, finished 15 seasons with Montreal and is the franchise’s all-time leader with 361 wins. He won the Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy in 2014-15 and was Bergeron’s teammate on the 2014 Olympic gold medal team.
Price will join the Canadiens in a Ring of Honor ceremony before tonight’s game against Minnesota at the Bell Centre.
Pekka Rinne
Milwaukee has sent a wave of talent to the Nashville Predators for decades, and Rinne ranks among the best of those success stories.
Drafted in the eighth round in 2004, Rinne came to Milwaukee a year later and quickly found success. He led the Admirals to the 2006 Calder Cup Final and had three shutouts that postseason. In his first three AHL seasons, he represented Milwaukee twice in the AHL All-Star Classic. In 2007-08, he led all AHL goaltenders with 65 regular season games. His AHL career featured 147 games as he went 83-49-11 with a 2.54 GAA, .910 save percentage and 10 shutouts.
From there, he ended up playing 15 seasons with Nashville, recording 369 wins in 683 games. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2017-18 before retiring in 2021. He has also represented Finland several times, including at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Rinne’s Nashville ties remain strong, and he’s entering his fourth season in a developmental and scouting role.
Brian Burke
In addition to the player inductees, Burke was elected to the Hall of Fame this year in the builder category as the NHL’s longest-tenured leader.
Burke made his professional debut with the Springfield Indians in the spring of 1977, following his senior year at Providence College. His only full season came in 1977-78 with the Maine Mariners, when he played 65 regular season games and won the Calder Trophy. When the AHL added the Manitoba Moose along with five other teams from the now-defunct International Hockey League in 2001, he helped establish the Vancouver Canucks’ new affiliation with the Moose.
With more than two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was awarded the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league in 2015-16.
