‘I’m just flabbergasted’: Flames legend Mike Vernon elected to Hockey Hall of Fame

Mike Vernon glanced at his phone. One of his former teammates — and a fellow Calgary Flames legend — was on the other end of the line.

“I thought Lanny (McDonald) was calling me for a golf game,” he quipped.

Not this time.

Lanny was calling to deliver big news, calling to welcome Vernon to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Flames’ goaltending great was among an induction class announced Wednesday that also includes Tom Barrasso, Henrik Lundqvist, Caroline Ouellette and Pierre Turgeon, plus Ken Hitchcock and the late Pierre Lacroix in the builder category.

“This is quite the honour,” Vernon said. “I’m just flabbergasted.”

Vernon will forever be a hero in Calgary, the homegrown goaltender who backstopped the Flames to a Stanley Cup parade in 1989.

He won a second championship ring in 1997 with the Detroit Red Wings, claiming Conn Smythe Trophy honours that spring.

As McDonald pointed out, he easily could have been a two-time playoff MVP. If not for several clutch saves from Vernon, the 1989 Flames may not have survived an opening-round scare from the Vancouver Canucks. That series was decided in sudden-death overtime in Game 7.

“We don’t even get out of the first round unless Mike Vernon played the way he did,” McDonald stressed on Wednesday’s conference call. “The three overtime saves that he made — the two one-timers on Tony Tanti and Petri Skriko, the breakaway save against Stan Smyl … And then to be able to get us all the way to the final to have another run at Montreal. And then, quite frankly, with all due respect to Patrick Roy, Mike outplayed Patrick in the final series.

“I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

The pride was evident in Vernon’s voice, too.

As the 60-year-old digested the news, he was thinking back further than 1989.

Back before he was starring for the junior-level Calgary Canucks or Calgary Wranglers, before he was drafted by the Flames or before he’d collected any of his 462 victories in the NHL spotlight, a combined count that includes both regular-season and playoff triumphs.

The five-time all-star wasn’t grousing about the fact that he’s been eligible for enshrinement since 2005.

“It is an emotional time for me. It might be a long time coming, but it’s still worth it,” Vernon said. “It’s unbelievable. My phone has been lighting up with texts. I guess it comes back to family. My mother was my first hockey coach, and we were a hockey family. Hockey was instilled in me at a very young age. I had older brothers that used to shoot pucks on me, so I was obviously the guy that was stuck in net.

“And it was fun. I just enjoyed the game. The game means a lot to me. It still means a lot to me. I loved it. Throughout my career, all the great people that I’ve met, the teammates that I had, the organizations, they all had a big influence on me. And to be selected into the Hockey Hall of Fame, there’s a lot of people that can raise their glass and say, ‘Cheers,’ because they were a big part of it, too.”

Vernon played a grand total of 19 campaigns in the NHL, bookending his career with separate stints with the Flames. He won 305 games on behalf of his hometown team — including a franchise-record 43 in the playoffs — and his No. 30 jersey now hangs from the rafters at the Saddledome.

“I liked him better when I played with him here, rather than when I played against him in Detroit because I was in St. Louis,” said Flames general manager Craig Conroy, Vernon’s teammate for his final two seasons. “I’m so happy for him, and it’s so deserving, too.

“He just knew what it took to be a winner in this league, and that’s hard to do.”

Vernon, who also tended twine in San Jose and Florida, is now a member of a club that is very hard to get into.

That golf game with Lanny will have to wait. Turns out, this call was even better.

“I’m just happy that I got to play as long as I did and put up the numbers that I put up,” Vernon said. “The hall of fame is recognizing that, and I much appreciate it.”

The 2023 induction ceremony is set for Nov. 13 in Toronto.