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Jeremy Jacobs, Mark Recchi elected to Hockey Hall of Fame

Jeremy Jacobs, who has owned the Bruins for 42 years, will enter the Hockey Hall of Fame later this year.dina rudick/globe staff/file 2011

Recognition, recently, has not been new to Jeremy Jacobs.

In 2015, the Bruins owner won the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. In 2016, Jacobs was inducted into the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame.

On Monday, Jacobs received his sport’s most significant honor.

Jacobs, 77, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Jacobs will enter the Hall’s builder category, where he will join former general manager Harry Sinden, who received his call 34 years earlier. The induction will take place in Toronto Nov. 13.

During Jacobs’s ownership, the Bruins’ crowning achievement was winning the Stanley Cup in 2011. Jacobs has since shifted the team’s CEO title to son Charlie Jacobs. But he remains the chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors, a title he assumed in 2007 from former Calgary owner Harley Hotchkiss.

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“This was a total surprise,” Jacobs said on a conference call following the announcement. “I’m humbled and very appreciative, because I know a lot of people that preceded me in here were good friends.

“What comes to mind first is Harley Hotchkiss, who was somebody I followed in the leadership role with the NHL. It’s just a wonderful group. You flatter me very much by including me in it.”

Teemu Selanne, University of Maine product Paul Kariya, former Bruins Dave Andreychuk and Mark Recchi, and women’s player Danielle Goyette were elected in the player category. Canadian college coach Clare Drake will be inducted along with Jacobs in the builder category.

Jacobs bought the Bruins from the Storer Broadcasting Company in 1975. Sinden, then Bruins GM for three years, served as Jacobs’s hockey operations point man. With Jacobs at the helm, Sinden in charge of his department, and a regularly changing cast of coaches behind the bench, the Bruins made the playoffs every year until 1997.

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It wasn’t until nine years later, however, that Jacobs oversaw the most significant organizational turnover of his ownership. After the lost lockout year of 2004-05, a shorthanded Bruins team stumbled in 2005-06. A leaguewide roster shake-up that Jacobs, Sinden (then president), and GM Mike O’Connell predicted did not take place.

Then-coach Mike Sullivan was in charge of a roster that included signings such as Alexei Zhamnov, Brian Leetch, Brad Isbister, and Dave Scatchard. O’Connell traded Joe Thornton, the 1997 No. 1 pick, to San Jose for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm, and Wayne Primeau.

Even before the conclusion of the 2005-06 season, O’Connell was out. After missing out on Ray Shero, then Nashville’s assistant GM, the Bruins targeted Peter Chiarelli from Ottawa. Jacobs hired Chiarelli as GM on May 26, 2006.

In earlier seasons, Jacobs had not been amenable to big-ticket acquisitions. With Sinden in charge of contract negotiations, Jacobs practiced fiscal restraint.

But in 2006, Jacobs approved one whopping investment that would change the franchise’s future. On July 1, 2006, the Bruins signed Zdeno Chara to a five-year, $37.5 million blockbuster deal. Chara, the ex-Senator, has served as captain and defensive strongman since then.

On the same day, Boston also signed Marc Savard to a four-year, $20 million contract. Not only did the signings improve the roster, they signaled to the rest of the league that the once-thrifty Bruins were willing to pay for good players worthy of such consideration.

The renaissance continued on June 21, 2007, with the hiring of Claude Julien to replace one-and-done coach Dave Lewis. On March 4, 2009, the Bruins acquired Recchi from Tampa Bay for Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums. It was a trade that played a part in both Jacobs and Recchi receiving their most recent honors. Two years later, as right wing alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, Recchi helped deliver Jacobs his first Cup.

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Recchi played only 180 of his 1,652 career games as a Bruin. But the feisty wing helped lead the way for his younger teammates. Recchi suffered from a kidney stone during the 2008-09 playoffs. The following year, Recchi led the Bruins with six goals in 13 playoff games. He went out on top, retiring after the Game 7 win over the Canucks with 577 goals and 956 assists in 1,652 regular-season games. It was his third Cup, following titles with Pittsburgh and Carolina.

“It was just something where you hope it was good enough at some point, whether it was now, a couple years from now, 10 years from now,” Recchi said. “To get in is something that is the ultimate prize, and it’s an amazing feeling.”

Andreychuk played 63 of his 1,639 games for Boston in 1999-2000. Kariya starred for the University of Maine in the 1992-93 NCAA championship season, when he submitted one of the best seasons in college hockey history. The skilled wing amassed 25 goals and 75 assists in 39 games.

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The Bruins did not issue qualifying offers to Joe Morrow or Colton Hargrove before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, making them both unrestricted free agents.

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The 24-year-old Morrow appeared in five playoff games against Ottawa. He had been a healthy scratch for more than two months.

The Bruins acquired Morrow, Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, and Matt Fraser from Dallas in the Tyler Seguin trade. Jimmy Hayes, obtained from Florida for Smith, is the lone remaining piece with connections to the deal.

The Bruins tendered qualifying offers to Noel Acciari, Linus Arnesson, Austin Czarnik, Zane McIntyre, David Pastrnak, Tim Schaller, Ryan Spooner, and Malcolm Subban.


Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.