Pair of Utah Hockey Club dads named to Hall of Fame selection committee

Jarome Iginla and Eddie Olczyk have recently added two things in common: They both have sons in the Utah Hockey Club organization and, as of Tuesday morning, they are both on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee.
The HHOF selection committee consists of a group of 18 individuals who, as you may have guessed, determine each year’s inductees. Iginla and Olczyk will replace Mike Gartner and David Page, who each served the maximum term of 15 years. Additionally, Ron Francis will take over as chair of the board, a role previously held by Gartner.
Eddie Olczyk’s tie to Utah HC is through his son, Nick Olczyk, whom you might recognize from the TV broadcasts.
“(He’s) very, very deserving,” Nick said of his father’s appointment to the selection committee. “He’s pretty much been in every role you could possibly be without being on the management side: coach, player, broadcaster. … You look at the body of work, everything that he’s done throughout his career, both on the hockey side, but most importantly, I think, growing the game, has been just as special as his playing career or broadcasting career or when he was a coach.”
Although Eddie is not a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame himself, he did have a wildly successful NHL career which landed him in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He also won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994.
After retiring, he turned to broadcasting, becoming a color commentator for the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 2003, he traded the microphone for a whistle, becoming the head coach of the Penguins. After two seasons, he went back to the broadcasting booth.
He now works as a TV analyst for the Seattle Kraken.
Nick said that his father always prefers to highlight other people’s achievements and downplay his own. He told Nick about it in a way that he describes as “off-hand.”
“Usually, those are the things that mean the most to him,” Nick said. “He’s the opposite of brag-adocious, he’s never pointing (positive) fingers at himself — it’s always at other people. But I know this means a lot to him.”
Iginla’s son, Tij Iginla, was the first draft pick in Utah HC franchise history.
Although Tij was not available for comment on Tuesday morning, he always talks very highly of his father — as both a parent and a hockey influence.
Jarome is a member of the Hall of Fame himself. He ranks 16th all-time in NHL goals and 37th in points and leads the Calgary Flames all-time in goals and points. He captained the Flames from 2003 to 2013.
He now works as a special assistant to the general manager of the Flames — a position that often leads former players into prominent front office positions. Iginla also co-owns the Kamloops Blazers, where he played his junior hockey.
With the class of 2024 being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this past weekend, eyes now shift to the class of 2025.
First-time eligible players include Carey Price, Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith, Ryan Getzlaf, Jason Spezza and Tuukka Rask.
In the female category, names like Jennifer Botterill and Meghan Duggan might get some attention.
There’s also the potential that with new voices on the selection committee, some players that had been passed over might finally get in.
The big one is Alexander Mogilny, who has better offensive output than Paul Kariya in roughly the same number of games and a backstory comparable to that of Vaclav Nedomanský, who is in the Hall largely because of his role in paving the way for Czechoslovakian players to be able to play in the NHL (Mogilny did the same thing for Soviet players).
Others include Keith Tkachuk, Curtis Joseph, Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind’Amour.
Some also wonder if the selection committee will allow Jaromir Jágr to bypass the requirement that a player must wait three years from his last professional hockey game to be eligible for induction. At age 52, Jágr is still playing professional hockey for his hometown team in Kladno, Czechia, but has stated that this will be his last year.