Longtime NHL players Joe Pavelski, Zach Parise and Scott Gomez headline the United States Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2025.
Olympic gold medal-winning women’s defender Tara Mounsey and photographer Bruce Bennett are also set to be enshrined at a ceremony in St. Paul, Minnesota. USA Hockey announced the quintet of inductees Wednesday.
“All five of these members of the class share a common bond through the Winter Olympics,” USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher said on a video call with reporters. “It’s appropriate as we gear up for another Olympic and Paralympic year that all of these people are going into the Hall together.”
Gomez was one of the first Latino players to make the league and made history as the first to come from the state of Alaska. He won the Stanley Cup twice with New Jersey.
Overlapping for much of their careers, Gomez, Pavelski and Parise combined to play 53 seasons and all represented the U.S. at the Olympics.
Mounsey helped the U.S. win the first women’s hockey gold medal at the Games in 1998 and was part of the team that reached the final in 2002.
“To be a part of that team was incredible,” Mounsey said. “To look back and see how the sport of women’s ice hockey has just exploded since the 1998 year, it’s just incredible to witness the opportunity that these young girls have now on the ice and the role models that they have to look up to.”
Bennett has photographed nearly 6,000 games in the NHL and internationally over his 50 years in the business. He joked that
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FILE - New Jersey Devils' Scott Gomez drinks from the Stanley Cup after the Devils beat the Dallas Stars in double overtime of game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in Dallas on June 10, 2000. (AP Photo/Tim Sharp, File)
FILE - Colorado Avalanche left wing Zach Parise is seen in the second period of an NHL hockey game on April 13, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Dallas Stars center Joe Pavelski is seen in the first period during an NHL hockey game against the Arizona Coyotes on March 24, 2024, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Divisions emerged Wednesday over U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as its ambitions have grown beyond Gaza, with some Western European countries declining to join, others remaining noncommittal and a group of Muslim countries agreeing to sign on.
The developments underscored European concerns over the expanded and divisive scope of the project — which some say may seek to rival the U.N. Security Council's role in mediating global conflicts. Trump is looking to form the board officially this week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Norway and Sweden said they won’t accept their invitations, after France also said no, while a bloc of Muslim-majority nations — Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said in a joint statement that their leaders would join.
It was not immediately clear how many countries would accept. A White House official said about 30 countries were expected to join, and about 50 had been invited. Two other U.S. officials, who similiarly spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal plans not yet made public, said roughly 60 countries had been invited but only 18 had so far confirmed their participation.
Trump was sunny about the prospects ahead of an event Thursday tied to the board, saying of the countries that were invited that “some need parliamentary approval but for the most part, everybody wants to be on.”
Chaired by Trump, the board was originally conceived as a small group of world leaders overseeing the Gaza ceasefire plan. But the Trump administration’s ambitions have since expanded into a more sprawling concept, with Trump hinting at the board's role as mediator for other global conflicts.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he's agreed to join the board — a departure from an earlier stance when his office criticized the makeup of another committee tasked with overseeing Gaza.
Norway’s state secretary, Kristoffer Thoner, said the Scandinavian country would not join the board because it “raises a number of questions that requires further dialogue with the United States.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on the sidelines of Davos that his country wouldn't sign up for the board as the text currently stands, Swedish news agency TT reported, though the country hasn’t formally responded.
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said “the time has not yet come to accept the invitation," according to the STA news agency. The main concern is the board’s mandate is too broad and could seriously undermine international order based on the U.N. Charter, Golob said.
France declined the invitation earlier in the week. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, “Yes to implementing the peace plan presented by the president of the United States, which we wholeheartedly support, but no to creating an organization as it has been presented, which would replace the United Nations.”
The United Kingdom, the European Union’s executive arm, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and China also have not yet indicated their response to Trump's invitations.
Parties key to the Gaza ceasefire — Egypt and Israel — have said they would join the board, as have Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Netanyahu's decision was significant because his office had previously said the composition of a Gaza executive committee — which includes Turkey, Israel's key regional rival, and will work with those governing the territory day to day — was not coordinated with the Israeli government and ran "contrary to its policy,” without clarifying its objections.
The move could now put Netanyahu in conflict with some of the far-right allies in his coalition, such as Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has criticized the board and called for Israel to take unilateral responsibility for Gaza’s future.
Many questions remain about the board. When asked by a reporter on Tuesday if the board would replace the U.N., Trump said: “It might.”
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Josh Boak in Davos, Switzerland, Jovana Gec in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.
Palestinians mourn over the body of Mohammed Al-Rajoudi, after he was killed by Israeli fire, during his funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian women receive donated food at a community kitchen in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
