Ron DeGregorio, Chris Drury, Angel Ruggiero and Mathieu Schneider have been selected for U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame’s class of 2015. He has been with USA Hockey for 40 years, and won the NHL’s Lester Patrick Award for service to hockey in 2002.
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Ruggiero (Simi Valley, Calif.) is one of women’s hockey’s most notable names as a four-time Olympic medalist (One gold, two silvers, one bronze) and three-time world champion. The defenseman was also the youngest player on that team, at 18, a senior attending prep school in Connecticut at that time.
The Class of 2015 will be formally enshrined at the 2015 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Celebration on Thursday, December 17, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.
Angela Ruggiero, who grew up in Harper Woods after her family moved to Michigan from California, now will be preparing for two induction ceremonies. She has played more games (256) in a Team USA uniform than any other ice hockey player in the country’s history.
Schneider was a Stanley Cup victor with the Habs in 1992-93, but he wasn’t so fortunate on his second stop along the Original Six trail, his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1996-98.
DeGregorio was president of USA Hockey for 12 years until stepping down recently. The Salem, New Hampshire native never played at a higher level than tier II college hockey, where he was a netminder for Middlebury College in the mid 1960’s, but his impact on the game in the United States has been far reaching and positive. She also helped Harvard win the 1999 women’s hockey national championship. He also played for the New York Rangers from 1998-2000 and was a Detroit Red Wing from 2003-07. He played in 1,289 National Hockey League games and 223 goals and 520 assists. He played in seven games during that tournament, which ended with the U.S. claiming its most significant tournament victory since the Miracle on Ice.
A year later, Drury won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, making him the only person to capture the Hobey Baker and Calder trophies.
DeGregorio now serves as co-chair of the USA Hockey Board of Directors following his retirement as president of USA Hockey in June 2015 after a 12-year span. His influence was instrumental in the establishment of USA Hockey’s American Development Model, which was launched in 2009 and has been widely acclaimed, including today being used as the basis for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s athlete development program. He won a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1993.
Besides winning the 1996 World Cup title, Schneider also played in the 1998 Winter Games and the 1988 World Junior Championships.
DeGregorio, better known as “Digger” throughout the hockey world, first began with USA Hockey in 1973. “As the years go by, we are installing people who are friends, who I’ve worked with or watched play”. Among his other roles in hockey, he was a co-owner of the now defunct, but awesomely-named Kentucky Thoroughblades of the American Hockey League.
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Drury also appeared in three Olympics, winning silver twice (2002, 2010), and was also part of numerous World Championship events including the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. More details, including ticket information, will be released in the upcoming weeks.
