A look at the 2012 Hall of Fame candidates

The Hockey Hall of Fame's selection committee is scheduled to hold its annual meeting this Tuesday in Toronto. By the end of the day, the committee is expected to formally announce who it will induct as part of the Class of 2012.

It won't be an easy job. This year's list of possible inductees is one of the strongest ever, featuring an excellent crop of newly eligible stars and several strong candidates who've fallen just short in recent years. With a limited number of spots available each year, there's no doubt that some deserving candidates will be snubbed.

Here's a look at some of the names that the selection committee will be considering this year.

Jeremy Roenick - Recently made an extremely eloquent and impressive case for his induction to the members of the selection committee, and was disappointed at the end when they all took their Stanley Cup rings out of their ears and said "sorry, what?"

Mats Sundin - Leaf fans are eager to see him take his place in the Great Hall, partly due to his accomplishments and career statistics but mostly because they just want a chance to see him surrounded by some decent wingers for once.

Markus Naslund - No player who was primarily known as a Vancouver Canuck has ever been inducted into the Hall of Fame but Naslund has a chance to finally change that, assuming he spends some time emailing the selection committee YouTube videos of how awesome Pavel Bure was.

Claude Lemieux - Was thrilled to get a phone call informing him of his induction and is looking forward to attending the invitation-only ceremony being held this weekend in a Detroit parking lot and oh no Claude don't go it's a trap!

Joe Sakic - The committee will no doubt spend time discussing all the various awards and accomplishments that he failed to achieve during his career, so that should take care of 15 seconds out of the agenda.

Dave Andreychuk - It's taken him four years of eligibility to emerge as a legitimate candidate, which is actually just about the fastest he's ever moved during his hockey career.

Eric Lindros - Hearing his name called by the Hockey Hall of Fame would no doubt rank as one of the greatest moments of his life, right up until his parents ruined it by forcing him to demand a trade to Cooperstown.

Kevin Lowe - Has yet to be inducted as a player, although Oiler fans are confident he'll be a slam dunk in the new "Perpetual Re-Builder" category.

Pavel Bure - Was known in his prime as the fastest skater in the league but is now a 41-year-old who hasn't played in eight years and is suffering from a chronic knee injury that ended his career, so would probably only be the second faster skater in the league.

Adam Oates - Has so far been unable to live down the stigma of that one time in his career back in 1987 when he passed the puck to a teammate who didn't immediately score.

Brendan Shanahan - Is secretly hoping that the 18-member selection committee doesn't vote him in unanimously, just so he can spend some time screaming "That wasn't enough, you idiot!" at somebody else for a change.

Curtis Joseph - Fun fact: If he doesn't make it in and you try to comfort him by saying "Well isn't that a kick in the head", he'll just glare at a photo of Mike Foligno and say "No, that feels slightly different".

Pat Burns - Experts expect that the selection committee will do the right thing this year, just as soon as they figure out how to build the time machine that will allow them to go back and strangle the last two selection committees.