Does Barrasso belong in Hall of Fame?

The Hockey Hall of Fame's Class of 2020 will be announced Wednesday afternoon, after the Hall's 18-member selection committee has whittled down the list of candidates.

Jarome Iginla, whose 20-season career included a brief stint with the Penguins in 2013, is a popular choice to get the 75 percent support needed, and there seems to be sentiment for the likes of Marian Hossa, Alexander Mogilny, Rod Brind'Amour, Daniel Alfredsson and Team Canada stalwart Jennifer Botterill, among others.

Precisely how much time the committee will spend debating the merits of choosing former Penguins goalie Tom Barrasso -- assuming his name comes up at all -- is hard to say, and probably never will be known since details of the group's deliberations rarely leak out of the session.

Barrasso retired in 2003 and became eligible for induction three years later, so he has been passed over many times, and there doesn't seem to be a major push to get him inducted now.

Still, a case can be made that Barrasso is at least a legitimate candidate for the honor, although hardly a slam-dunk pick.

Every time Barrasso gets bypassed in the Hall voting, some supporters suggest that it's because of the largely unpleasant relationships he had with the media (and a number of teammates) during his playing days.

There is no question that his dealings with reporters often were prickly, to put it charitably, and that some guys with whom he shared a locker room found him to be as condescending as the writers and TV/radio people whose jobs required that they interact with him at times.

However, induction to the Hall is not supposed to be a congeniality award; the committee is supposed to assess a player's career achievements, then determine whether he or she deserves a place among the most accomplished practitioners of their craft.

Here is a look at the credentials Barrasso established during his 19 seasons in pro hockey.

THE PROS

Barrasso is best-known, at least locally, for the Stanley Cups he helped the Penguins to earn in 1991 and 1992, but those aren't the only noteworthy entries on his resume.

He broke into the NHL in 1983, a time when teams were wary of investing first-round draft choices in goaltenders because it was so difficult to project how they would develop.

Buffalo, however, thought enough of his potential to choose him fifth overall, a decision likely influenced by the 22-0-1 record he compiled during his senior season at Acton-Boxborough High School in Massachusetts.

Barrasso became not only the first goaltender to go directly from high school to the NHL (he's still the only one), but earned the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie during his first season.

The 1983-84 season proved to be his best, from an individual perspective, although after being named a first-team all-star in 1984, he was picked a second-teamer in 1985 and 1993.

Barrasso ranks 22nd among goalies in league history with 777 games-played and is 19th in victories (369). Nine of the goalies with more wins have not been inducted to the Hall, but four of those -- Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo -- are either still active or have not been retired long enough to be eligible for selection.

He is tied for 12th place with 119 playoff appearances and tied for 14th with 61 postseason victories.

THE CONS

In addition to being the go-to goalie during the Penguins' first two championship runs, Barrasso was a central figure in some crushing defeats. The overtime goal he gave up to Sabres defenseman Uwe Krupp in the final game of the 1988-89 season -- when Mario Lemieux flew across the country after being sidelined for several months with back trouble and scored one goal and set up the other in a 3-2 loss that knocked the Penguins out of the playoffs -- was the first of those, but not the last.

Barrasso also allowed the David Volek overtime goal that knocked the Penguins out of the 1993 playoffs, and Tom Fitzgerald's long-distance goal in the third period of Game 7 in the 1996 conference final that made it possible for Florida to complete its upset of the Penguins.

A goaltender's personal stats are influenced not only by the teams for which he plays, but by the era, and Barrasso was active at a time when there were a lot of goals being scored.

Consequently, many of his career numbers are not the kind that might be expected of a serious Hall of Fame contender.

He is 144th in regular season goals-against average (3.24), 124th in save percentage (.892) and tied for 47th in shutouts (38).

Barrasso's playoff stats are pretty pedestrian, as well.

He ranks 12th in games-played (119) and 14th in victories (61), but 10th in losses (54) and just 66th in save percentage (.902) and 87th in goals-against average (3.01).

THE BOTTOM LINE

Although there is no easy way to get into the Hall of Fame, tending goal just might be the toughest.

Only 39 goalies have been inducted, fewer than any other position. That total compares to 87 defensemen, 86 centers, 48 left wingers and 44 right wingers. Oh, and no fewer than 19 other players entered the Hall designated as "rovers."

What's more, Martin Brodeur (2018) is the only goalie selected in past three classes. (Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, inducted in 2019, does not count because he entered the Hall as a Builder, not a player.)

It also doesn't enhance the prospects for Barrasso, who was inducted to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, that he's not the only goaltender for whom an argument could be made.

Curtis Joseph, Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood are among the other goalies who have a constituency, although not necessarily among members of the selection committee.

Do any of them deserve to be picked ahead of Barrasso? All put together impressive careers, and Osgood punctuated his with three Cups, while Vernon won two. As with Barrasso, a valid case could make for each of the three.

And as long as the list of qualified goalie candidates is so crowded -- and with players at that position seemingly overlooked more than those who played anywhere else -- Barrasso likely will remain no better than a long shot to get in.