Rozner: Is Chicago Blackhawks' Crawford on Hall of Fame track?

It's long been considered a lock that Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith are ticketed for the Hall of Fame when they hang up the blades.

The confession here is that Corey Crawford's name has not passed through this rather thick skull whenever the conversation has popped up.

But Tampa coach Jon Cooper dropped some significant praise on the Blackhawks' netminder when he was in town over the weekend.

“Just looking from afar and having played these guys in the (2015) Stanley Cup Final, you can sit here and talk about Toews, Kane, Keith, but it was Crawford that was the calming influence,” Cooper said. “It was Crawford that stopped us. Then all the other guys took over after that.

“So I think you're going to look back at his resume and if he continues with a little bit more longevity here, he'll be hard to keep out of the Hall of Fame conversation.

“If you were to sit here and make a list of the three guys in this league that are probably not talked about enough — if you say, 'Is this guy a Hall of Famer?' — he's going to be one of them.”

Those are big words from a special coach of a special team, a group that has competed for the top prize four of the last five years, with three trips to the conference finals or better and with another big chance this season.

The reality is Crawford probably needs four more very good years to be in that conversation. He's at 231 victories at age 34 and 305 would put him in the top 30 all time as the list currently stands.

Crawford is already 20th in playoff victories (48) and with a pair of rings he might have himself a fighting chance.

If he can stay healthy and the Hawks can help him start winning 30 games a year again, Crawford would compare favorably to Mike Richter, who is not in the Hall of Fame yet but should be.

Richter retired in 2003 with 301 career victories and 41 playoff wins after playing his entire career with the Rangers, a team he led to the Cup in 1994, the first for the franchise in 45 years.

He was also the World Cup MVP in 1996 for an underdog Team USA, a victory that is nearly the equivalent of a Stanley Cup title if you grasp the historical significance of that championship for the United States.

When Richter gets in, that would bode well for Crawford.

But Cooper's point about Crawford's importance to that title in 2015 underlies a greater theme, which is that Crawford has never been properly appreciated within the hockey world.

He's been one of the best goaltenders in the game the last eight years and his name is rarely — if ever — mentioned among the game's elite. What occurred last season probably woke up many to what he means to the Hawks.

Crawford was on top of his game and Hawks were 2 points out of a playoff spot with half a season remaining when he left the lineup in late December. Minus their goalie, the Hawks finished 19 points out of a postseason spot and last in their division.

Yet, his highest finish in the Vezina is fifth, and he should have won the Conn Smythe in the 2013 and 2015 Cup runs, when he was the Hawks' best player both times.

“Everyone here knows he should have been MVP,” Kane said in 2013 after winning the Conn Smythe. “He was great for us this postseason.”

Said Joel Quenneville on the ice in Boston after winning the Cup in 2013, “He's the reason we're here and he's the reason we won this game. There's games like this when you need your goalie to keep you in it, when the other team plays like the Bruins did tonight.

“Corey did that for us and I'm not surprised. He's a great goaltender and I'm glad everyone in hockey got to see that.”

Keith won the Conn Smythe in 2015, but the feeling was the same.

“I don't know what else he can do,” Keith said of Crawford. “He has won a lot of games for us by himself. He did it in this series when we weren't very good.

“Let's face it, we don't win the Cup if he doesn't steal a couple of these games. I don't know what else he has to do to answer the questions.”

That's really the story of Crawford's career, always having to prove something to the experts. He's back in that spot again, though for very different reasons, and has another opportunity to vault himself into the NHL spotlight.

As for the Hall of Fame, well, Crawford will have plenty of time to make his case — as long as he stays on the ice.