Monday evening, a new group of hockey greats were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, as Pavel DatsyukShea Weber, Jeremy Roenick, David Poile, Colin Campbell, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell gathered in this sacred place, located just steps from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Scotiabank Arena home.

The annual Hall of Fame weekend was good for both the class of 2024 and the Maple Leafs. As the newly consecrated group was celebrated as they received their jackets and rings, Toronto continues its positive momentum with home wins against the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens (ignoring Tuesday’s miss against the Ottawa Senators). It’s fitting that the club is a major part of Hall of Fame tradition, as the Maple Leafs have had more players inducted than any other NHL franchise.

So it’s worth wondering how some of the current Maple Leafs stack up for future inclusion in Hall.

Auston Matthews

At 27 years old, Auston Matthews has already won a Hart Trophy, a Calder Trophy, three Richard “Rocket” Trophies and has been named to a few All-Star Games. He has 373 goals (more than Datsyuk) and 660 points in his career. In short, he is on track towards consecration – if it’s not already there.

Matthew is one of nine NHL players to record two seasons of 60 or more goals. The other eight all entered the room. In fact, he still has plenty of time to continue his impressive scoring prowess and catch up to Brett Hull (three 60-goal seasons), Mario Lemieux and Phil Esposito (four) and even Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy (five). At this point, the Arizona native looks like such a slam dunk for induction that anything short of one — whether through injury or unimaginable regression — would be catastrophic.

John Tavares

Roenick’s induction demonstrated the NHL’s desire to recognize enduring and consistent greatness, regardless of individual or team honors. This is good news for John Tavares and his Hall chances.

Will John Tavares enter the Hall of Fame as an Islander or a Leaf? #Islands    #LeavesForever pic.twitter.com/ha3X3uZ3cu

-Avi (@SauberAvi) February 7, 2024

On stats alone, Tavares has – or is close to – hitting all the right benchmarks. He reached 1,000 career points last season And 1,000 career games in the previous season. The 34-year-old needs 36 goals for 500 in his career, which may not happen this season, but he should certainly hit that milestone at some point. But conversely, he has not yet collect individual rewards over 16 seasons with the Maple Leafs and New York Islanders, and he hasn’t even sniffed the Stanley Cup (he didn’t make it past the second round).

There was a time when just having the numbers without the hardware wasn’t enough to include Hall — after all, half the league posted similarly stellar numbers in the 1980s. These days, however, inductions of players like Roenick and Pierre Turgeon opened the doors – and Tavares was probably a better player than either of them.

Max Pacioretty

Like the currently injured As Max Pacioretty enters what is likely the final leg of a decorated 17-year career, it seems likely that the 35-year-old won’t have a strong enough resume to be inducted. On the plus side, the six-time 30-goal scorer has established himself as a highly respected leader and offensive force on multiple occasions in Montreal, Vegas, Washington and now Toronto.

Unfortunately, an inability to stay healthy deprived Pacioretty of many opportunities to further solidify his Hall of Fame case. While other 2007 rookies like Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn have long surpassed the 1,000-game mark, the Connecticut native remains stuck at 915 in his career. If you take away his 13 games with the Maple Leafs, he still only averaged 56 games per season during his career.

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William Nylander and Mitch Marner

Let’s put both William Nylander and Mitch Marner in the joint “too soon to tell” category. While Matthews would have to fire up spectacularly to not ultimately be called up to the Hall at this point, Nylander and Marner still have work to do to continue and possibly expand on the productivity of their first decade in the league.

At the moment, one could certainly argue that Marner has a head start. A year and four days younger, he scored 113 more points in 27 fewer games. It is Nylander, however, who appears to be rapidly developing into a more potent goal-scoring force, scoring 40 goals in each of the last two seasons and 114 in the last three. If Marner can continue to flirt with 100 points for the foreseeable future and Nylander can produce more seasons with 40 goalsIt won’t be long before the two career Maple Leafs generate Hall of Fame buzz. Of course, more team success would also help.

Given the high-end talent leading the way and the well-respected veterans bolstering the core, it seems highly likely that current Maple Leafs fans will get to watch future Hall of Famers. But just as individual success breeds team success, the opposite is also true. For every Roenick without a Cup in the Hall, there are many more legends like two-time winner Datsyuk. So just as the 2025 Hall of Fame class could include Cup winners like Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith and Ryan Getzlaf, there are a number of Leafs who could greatly improve their Hall chances by winning it all. Pretty simple, right?