Hockey Hall of Fame Q&A session huge hit with honored members, fans

TORONTO -- Shea Weber became a Hockey Hall of Famer by not only thwarting formidable foes, but doing it with grace.

On Saturday, inside the Great Hall of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the world-class defenseman faced perhaps his toughest challenger -- a young boy named Connor.

During the Inductee Fan Forum, a special event where fans get to ask that year’s Hall of Fame honored members questions, Connor asked Weber, who served as captain of the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens during his 16-season NHL career, which team he preferred to play on.

Talk about being put on the spot.

“My friend, you have a job in the future here,” fellow inductee Jeremy Roenick joked to Connor, perhaps giving Weber some time to figure a way out of this one, which he did.

“I love both the cities for different reasons,” Weber said. “Obviously, I was drafted to Nashville. I grew up. I was 20 years old. I played 11 years there, amazing city, amazing fans. Then getting a chance to play in Montreal was like nothing I've ever seen in my life. The history, the rich history, the franchise, the building. Every time you walk in the building, you see the faces up here, [Hall of Famers] like this. You just you get goosebumps thinking about it. I mean, I can't give you, can't give one or the other.”

Then Weber showed just how savvy he can be by adding, “but I loved playing for Team Canada.”

The moment between Weber and the young fan was one of several highlights of a magical day in the Hall, where regular fans got an hour to pick the brains of Weber, Jeremy Roenick, Pavel Datsyuk, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl.

It’s an event that started in 1999 when Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and one Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald said is his favorite part of this weekend. The five players and two inductees in the Builder category -- David Poile and Colin Campbell -- received their Hall of Fame rings on Friday and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday and deliver their speeches.

The event in front of a packed crowd wearing all sorts of hockey gear was hosted by TSN’s Geno Reda and lasted an hour. Some other memorable moments were:

-- Datsyuk’s poignant response when he was asked by a fan why, after playing 14 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, he left the NHL after the 2015-16 season to go play back home in Russia in the KHL.

“Playing in the NHL, [it was] a long time away from home every time,” Datsyuk said. “When you start to get older, you want to go home, home, home, home. This is one reason.

“And another reason, my oldest daughter is there and I want to see her. She lives in Russia most time and I’m here.”

-- Roenick provided perhaps the most emotional moment of the day when he was asked what person in his life was the biggest influence during his 20 seasons in the NHL.

“It’s easy to say your parents, but for me, I spent most of my life with my wife,” Roenick said. “None of us can go through what we go through, be a professional, be on top of our game without having a strong, amazing woman by my side.

“I met my wife when I was 13, married her when I was 22. I never met someone (else) who will tell me when I’m wrong, put me in my place when I need to, or will support me.”

-- One of the cutest moments of the day was when a young “fan” named Zach asked Darwitz what was her favorite memory of being a mom. It turned out, Zach is one of Darwitz’s sons, and he and his brother Joseph came up to the stage for Darwitz to give her answer.

“Brian Burke texted me a couple of weeks ago and said, ‘Enjoy the (Hall of Fame) weekend, it’s going to be the best day of your life’,” Darwitz said. “It is, but the best day is the day I had these two and became a mom.”

-- Wendell-Pohl, who was a teammate of Darwitz at the University of Minnesota and for the U.S. National team, told a family story when asked to name the first time she felt she had a future in hockey.

“My dad made me play a bunch of sports, and he was like, you're a really competitive kid, and there's just not really a future in hockey, so that you should play other sports and maybe play basketball,” Wendell-Pohl said. “And I hated it, but I kept playing. And I remember when the University of Minnesota announced there was going to be a girls (hockey) team, and I was going to be able to play in college, my dad let me quit basketball and I was like, maybe I’m going to be OK.”

Near the end of the event, McDonald, who is stepping down from his post in June 2025 and being replaced by Mike Gartner, said his farewells to this year’s class.

“This is a very special class, especially being my last one,” McDonald said. “And this is my all-time favorite event, this weekend, so congratulations to you all.”