Pavel Datsyuk is elected to the Hall of Fame.
Then the icon Dominik Hasek crashes.
“You have a choice,” he writes on X.
Pavel Datsyuk has always been many people’s favorite player over the years in the NHL. He played alongside a series of Swedish icons, and with his wizardry with the puck, and incredibly soft wrists, he charmed an entire hockey world during all the years in the Red Wings.
Unexpected criticism
Earlier this year, the Russian was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and no one was surprised by that decision. Next week is the time for the official induction during the Hockey Hall of Fame weekend, but now comes sudden and unexpected criticism – from none other than Dominik Hasek.
The goaltending icon, often ranked as the best goalkeeper of all time, is a Hall of Famer himself after winning two Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold with the Czech Republic. In a long post on X, he now raves about Datsyuk’s appointment, but it has nothing to do with his qualities on the ice.
“On sporting grounds, he undeniably deserves to be inducted into the hockey hall of fame,” he writes, among other things, before he problematizes the appointment that takes place in the middle of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” writes Hasek according to Expressen.
“You have a choice”
According to Hasek, it is wrong for the Hall of Fame to highlight a prominent Russian athlete in the middle of the war.
“However, it must be mentioned that any public appearance by a Russian citizen who has not officially condemned either the Russian imperialist war or their war crimes constitutes excellent advertising for Russia. However, I do not know if Datsyuk intends to denounce the war, before the appointment is officially made in November, or if he is unable to do so. But if he doesn’t, his presence at an award ceremony like this is a big advertisement that risks escalating the war,” he writes further.
Dominik Hasek now believes that the committee is choosing between highlighting Datsyuk – or saving human lives.
“Your choice will show the whole world how much you value human life, even if it’s on the other side of the globe.”
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