Bergeron and Price headline the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2026

This Monday afternoon, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced its class of 2026, and Patrice Bergeron and Carey Price are the names that will define it.

The announcement landed this afternoon, and the reaction was immediate.

-

Bergeron standing alone on the ice in full Bruins gear, that familiar No. 37 on his back. The image says it all.

For two decades, Bergeron set the standard for two-way play in the NHL. Six Selke Trophies. A Stanley Cup. A gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics. You want to know what the perfect center looks like? He wore black and gold.

The Boston Bruins finished this past season at 45-27-10 for 100 points, and the franchise still carries the DNA he helped build.

Price's induction closes one of hockey's most complicated chapters

Price's path to Toronto's Hall is different. More complicated. More emotional.

He carried the Montreal Canadiens to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final on sheer willpower and a save percentage that bordered on supernatural. His cap hit is still listed at $10.5 million. The injury years, the leaves of absence, the uncertainty around his health - none of that erased what he was at his peak.

At his peak, Carey Price was simply the best goaltender on the planet.

-

Juuse Rinne joins them, and that's a defensible choice. The Finnish goalie was the backbone of Nashville's best years, a Vezina Trophy winner in 2018 and the kind of netminder who made Predators fans believe every single night.

Keith Tkachuk rounds out the player class. The power forward was one of the genuinely feared scorers of the 1990s and 2000s. And yes, you know the last name. His son Matthew is currently on a $9.5 million cap hit with the Florida Panthers.

Brian Burke goes in as a builder. Whatever you think of his time behind microphones and in front of cameras, his fingerprints are on multiple playoff rosters across this league.

Five inductees. A strong class. Bergeron and Price will get the loudest ovations at the ceremony, and that's exactly right.

The question now is whether the Canadiens organization in Montreal uses this moment to celebrate what Price was, rather than just mourn what he never got to finish.