The Class of 2026 takes different paths to the AHL Hall of Fame | TheAHL.com
Patrick WilliamsFeatures Writer for TheAHL.com
ROCKFORD, Ill. … At the very least, the 2026 AHL Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony was about hockey and accomplishments.
Goals. It helps. Points. Calder Cup Championships – 10 of them among the four inductees. Personal rewards. Reaching the NHL.
Success.
Chris Bourque, Alexandre Giroux, Jim Wiemer again Wendell Young became the latest members of the AHL Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Rockford’s Coronado Theater on Wednesday. Bourque’s ability to play got him there. Giroux was one of the best scorers of his era. Wiemer transitioned from forward to defenseman en route to 325 NHL games. Young gave up pucks for a living before going into possessions and winning some.
But the event was about relationships and life lessons. Spouses, children and grandchildren. With parents and siblings. With friends and teammates. By coaches, even those who treat them with tough love as young AHL prospects.
For Bourque, the family name achieved a prominent hockey position long before Chris came to the AHL as a 19-year-old late in the 2004-05 season.
His father, of course, is a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee and Boston Bruins icon Ray Bourque. Coming into the AHL with that last name, Chris had to deal with that kind of pressure. But he was brought up in the right place in the Washington Capitals system, starting his professional career full-time with the Hershey Bears in 2005. Bruce Boudreau as his head coach. By the end of the first season, he was the Calder Cup champion.
Then his career really took off, as Giroux joined the Bears the following season. It was a perfect union. Bourque’s eye and acting skills. Giroux’s NHL-caliber image. Hershey returned to the Calder Cup Finals in 2007. After a half-season stint with the Atlanta Thrashers, Giroux returned to Hershey and reunited with Bourque. Another Calder Cup title followed in 2009. Bourque had his own move to the NHL before returning to Hershey for the entire 2009-10 season. Hershey won a league record 60 games and swept the Calder Cup.
As Bourque looked out at the audience at the Coronado Theater on Wednesday, he said, “It’s great to be standing here.”
As Giroux sat to the left of the stage, Bourque said to his longtime companion, “It’s okay that we’re doing this together.”
The AHL is still young. You really are young – and sometimes it can be easy to overlook that fact. The players are in their early twenties. Some of them, like the AHL All-Stars Konsta Helenius again Ilya Protasthey are young.
When we are young, we often want to reach our goals quickly. Giroux was no exception when he entered the AHL in 2001 as a seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators.
Slowing down, Giroux told the many young players in attendance.
“When I started playing in the American League,” Giroux recounted, “I didn’t plan or play for the Hall of Fame. [sport] what I like. (Looking back) I was really proud of what I always did. I enjoyed being in the American League. I was proud to do what I love, and it was a privilege to do it for a living.
“Don’t wait for something better to be happy. Enjoy the ride because you deserve it, and be proud of who you are now. Every day you go to the rink and spend time with your hockey teammates should be the best day of your life. “I’ve had a lot of good times and bad times, but the people you meet along the way help you get through those times.”
A video chronicling Giroux’s career before his induction speech brought back many of those people who have connected with him since he was a 20-something hopeful.
“Seeing my teammates talk about me like that makes me feel special,” Giroux said. “I’m lucky to have them in my life now as a friend.”
Wiemer learned the pro game from one of the toughest: Mike Keenan. “Iron Mike.” Coming to the Rochester Americans as a fourth-round pick in the Ontario Hockey League, Wiemer had early success as a forward. A 19-goal rookie season seems to indicate that the parent of the Buffalo Sabers may have had something for their young hope.
Then came that one night against the Fredericton Express. Needing a body on the blue line because of, well, a foul on one of Keenan’s defenders, the coach barked at Wiemer to switch to the blue line.
Wiemer quickly became a standout defenseman in the AHL, winning the Calder Cup with Keenan and the Amerks in 1983. He played in 64 games for Buffalo the following season.
“Hockey shaped me,” Wiemer said in his induction speech. “It challenged me.”
So is Keenan, one of the many players who have held their own throughout the years. But for Wiemer, Keenan was exactly what he needed. Able to combine his other offensive eye with the 6-foot-4, 200-pound brawn often called for in the 1980s, Wiemer finally blossomed. He had a 24-goal season with the New Haven Nighthawks in 1985-86 and really found his NHL role with the Boston Bruins in the second half of his career.
Young’s last stand in his 18 professional seasons was the longest as well.
He came to the Chicago Wolves having accomplished a lot. There were back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The magical spring of 1988 with Hershey where the Bears went 12-0 en route to the Calder Cup. He played in 187 NHL games, winning two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh.
He had done it.
But Chicago gave him a second act. He played seven seasons with the Wolves in the International Hockey League, winning two more championships. He moved from there to Chicago’s front office in 2001, then became an assistant coach, and eventually the team’s general manager. Along the way, he added three more Calder Cup titles to his resume in 2002, 2008 and 2022. He went 571-375-136 (.591) as Chicago’s general manager, navigating the team through several different NHL organizations.
The Wolves, Young explained in his introductory speech, “have a core agreement.” Wolves chairman of the board Don Levin He has been around since the band started in 1994. Young is a franchise player. Workers find their niche with Wolves and build long careers with the club. Young had many of those same people in the audience for his talk. And all that came before he got to the long list of thanks to his wife, Paulaand their family. The couple met before Young left for the Ontario Hockey League in 1980 to begin a career that continues today.
Be it real family, friends, or colleagues, the Wolves deal is always with us.
“It doesn’t matter, family first.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
