The American Hockey League has announced that Keith Aucoin, Nolan Baumgartner, Dave Creighton and Bill Torrey will make up the league’s 17th group of hall of fame members for 2022.
The league’s induction ceremony is scheduled for February 7 in Laval, Que., as part of the 2022 AHL all-star classic. The league will also honor former league president and CEO, Dave Andrews, the lone member from the 2021 class. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the league did not hold a ceremony last year.
Undrafted out of NCAA Division III, Aucoin recorded 857 points in 769 games over 13 AHL seasons with seven teams. Aucoin won the Calder Cup with Hershey in consecutive years in 2009 and 2010 while winning the MVP title with a 106-point campaign in 2009-10. Aucoin finished his AHL career with the Chicago Wolves in 2013-14, finishing his tenure as one of the most dominant offensive threats of his era.
Currently an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Baumgartner made his mark as an AHL stalwart. In 878 games, Baumgartner had 83 goals and 390 points on the blueline while making three all-star game appearances. After retiring in 2011-12 with Chicago, Baumgartner took an assistant coach role with the team before Vancouver changed its affiliation to the Utica Comets, where he spent four years as an assistant before joining the Canucks in 2017-18.
Creighton played 14 seasons in the AHL, tallying 692 points in 800 games from 1948-1969. Creighton was also a five-time NHL all-star and had 314 points in 616 games in 12 NHL seasons, with the Port Arthur, Ont. native playing 21 seasons of NHL hockey total. Creighton was the AHL’s MVP in 1967-68, his penultimate season in the NHL. Creighton died in 2017 at the age of 87.
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 1995, Torrey held a variety of roles in professional hockey, including being the GM of Oakland, Florida and the NY Islanders, helping that later win four Stanley Cups. Torrey started his career as publicity director for the AHL’s Pittsburgh Hornets in 1961 and dealt with AHL affiliates while working in the NHL. Torrey served on the executive committee of the AHL board of governors for over 20 years before his death in 2018 at 83.
