Tom Barrasso's Legacy Cemented with Hockey Hall of Fame Selection

While Tom Barrasso had always hoped he might make the Hockey Hall of Fame after a 19-year career that included back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins in 1991 and '92, that optimism began to fade as the years passed by.

"I was definitely not waiting by my phone," Barrasso said with a laugh. "In fact, they had a hard time getting ahold of me after they made the decision."

Fortunately, Lanny McDonald and Mike Gartner were able to reach Barrasso, and let him know that he was elected as part of the 2023 class. Barrasso is now the 11th member of Pittsburgh's 1991 or '92 Stanley Cup Championship teams to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the 21st player or builder with ties to the Penguins organization. Barrasso joins Jim Rutherford as the only goaltenders to appear on that list, although Rutherford was elected to the Hall of Fame in the builders' category.

"I think as a player, you're competitive and you hold yourself in a certain regard of how you think your career was. And then this is obviously the ultimate honor, if you make that grade or not. It's not for you to decide, it's for others to decide," Barrasso said.

"So to have the call come, to me, just validates the idea that I've had in my head this whole time - that I'll write down my accomplishments and I'll stand by them. And if they're good enough to get in, that's great. And if they're not, that's okay, too. So, it's a tremendous honor to have been selected by the committee, and it puts a bit of a validation on the idea what I thought along the way of my career."

Barrasso's Hall of Fame career began when Bowman, then head coach and general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, took him fifth overall in the 1983 NHL Draft. "He took a lot of heat selecting an American goalie with (that pick)," Barrasso said. "I think he felt he had nothing to lose, and let me play. And as time went along, it just worked."

Bowman credited their scout based in the Boston area for championing Barrasso, a New England native playing for his high school, Acton Boxborough. One particular skill of Barrasso's stood out to the scout, who had been singing the netminder's praises the season before his draft year.

"At that time, he said, 'Tom's as good a goalie playing the puck, as even ones that were in the NHL,'" Bowman said. "Tom was like 17 at that time. He said that Tom could shoot a puck as hard as anybody, and to keep an eye on him. I did go to Boston once in his draft year. He had a lot of work that game, and he was big, he was six foot two or three at the time."

So, when the Sabres were on the clock that night in Montreal, and Barrasso was available, they decided to take him. Because not only did they greatly admire him as a player; Buffalo also needed a goalie at the time.

That whole summer, Barrasso skated with the 1984 U.S. men's Olympic team, which was wonderful preparation for training camp in the fall. He ended up making the Sabres, and had what ended up being his best individual season in the NHL. Barrasso won the Vezina Trophy as the league's top netminder, along with the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.

"Coming out of high school, it was an amazing achievement," Bowman said. "Because even if he had come out of college, it would have been a big test, you know? And we had a pretty good team, but we rode him pretty well that year."

First, Barrasso was driven by confidence, and later, by a healthy dose of fear. "I wanted to succeed so bad and not go to the American League, and that just drove me every day to work and be good in practice and get myself prepared for games," he said.

After reaching the pinnacle of individual success that season, he made it to pinnacle of team success a few years later with the Penguins. Pittsburgh's general manager at the time, Tony Esposito - a former goaltender also known for his puck-playing ability - swung a trade to acquire Barrasso from Buffalo in 1988.

"When Barrasso arrived on the scene, the Penguins finally had a goaltender that could help carry them and win, and possibly win a championship," said the Hall of Famer himself, Mike Lange. "That was, to me, the first time the Penguins had real credibility in what they had. They had a lot of good personnel, and they were getting better. But that was one of the great trades of all time for the Penguins."

Barrasso would later become reunited with Bowman, who served as Penguins director of player personnel for the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 1991, and took over behind the bench for the late Badger Bob Johnson as the Penguins successfully defended their title in 1992.

"He was really a top-notch goalie," Bowman said. "He was really instrumental (in those runs). Being named to the Hall of Fame a very good accomplishment for him, because I think people had forgotten about the fact that how well he had played."

Bowman compared Barrasso's path to that of Grant Fuhr, who backstopped the Edmonton Oilers to five Stanley Cups in the 1980s. Barrasso also played behind a high-powered offensive team, with Bowman saying, "we didn't play a lot of defense, we didn't have to, and so he was a pretty busy goalie. You look at him and Grant Fuhr, and maybe their stats don't look like some of the other goalies - but when you have a team like that and you score goals, you also give up some on the defensive side."

But Barrasso ultimately made the saves that counted, with Bowman singling out his stabilizing presence between the pipes during Mario Lemieux's absence in the Second Round against the New York Rangers. Barrasso later followed that up with a terrific performance in the 1992 Stanley Cup Final, with the Penguins going up against a Chicago Blackhawks team who had won 11 in a row entering the series.

"The big game for us was Game 3, I thought. We beat them one to nothing in Chicago to go ahead three to nothing (in the series)," Bowman said. "Tommy won the game for us. That was crucial."

Barrasso ended up spending parts of 12 seasons in Pittsburgh, and ranks second in franchise history among goaltenders in games played (460), wins (226), shutouts (22) and has the most points (31) among all netminders in team history.

That last statistic is certainly a result of the puck-handling ability that convinced Buffalo to draft Barrasso, and ultimately became a hallmark of his game.

"He could really shoot," Bowman said. "When you think about goaltending, it's not just stopping the puck. He would really help the defensemen, because of his ability to play the puck. He was like a third defenseman. He could shoot the puck as well as some of the defensemen, and he could pass it. Don't forget, with the gloves they have, it's quite an art for a goalie to be able to do that. … I think it's a special skill for a goalie to be able to pass the puck at will and shoot it."

What also set Barrasso apart, for better and sometimes for worse, was his competitive spirit. "There was no fooling around," Bowman said. "I'll stop the puck and I'll play it, and that's what I remember about him."

Barrasso's attitude has added a complicated layer to his legacy. He could come across as prickly to those around him, to the point where Barrasso was asked about his particularly cantankerous relationship with the media after being named to the Hall.

"Fortunately, there was no Internet really back then, so I didn't read anything, I didn't watch television, I didn't pay much attention to it," he said. "You always know there's that negative vibe out there, which is not fun to deal with. But if that's the path you're going down, you just deal with it, and I did. I don't particularly have any real regret with much of that.

"There's people out there that are not pulling for you sometimes, and that's the way it goes. So you don't need to be cozy with them. The people you need on your side are your teammates and your family. That's what gets you through. I'm very comfortable with my career, all of it. I can live with that. There's good in it, there's bad in it. That's life."

None of that takes away from his deserving induction. The Penguins have been so fortunate to not only have some of the greatest skaters to ever play - they've had some of the greatest goalies, like Barrasso, in black and gold.