Tuesday was a great day to be Adam Oates. In the morning, he was named to his first head coaching job, by the Washington Capitals. In the afternoon, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  “It’s a special day for me and my family,” Oates said. “I don’t know if this has ever happened before. I should go out and play Lotto.”  Oates, No. 6 on the N.H.L.’s career assists list, was voted in by the 18-member election committee along with three other retired stars: Joe Sakic, Pavel Bure and Mats Sundin. They will be inducted Nov. 12 in Toronto. Sakic and Sundin were eligible for the first time. Bure has been eligible since 2006, Oates since 2007.  George McPhee, the Capitals’ general manager, said in a statement, “Adam was a highly intelligent player in the N.H.L. for 19 seasons.”  For the last two seasons Oates was an assistant for forwards with the Devils, and he was on the bench for their run to the Stanley Cup finals. His only previous coaching experience was as an assistant with Tampa Bay in 2009-10. He replaces Dale Hunter, who resigned after serving as the interim coach.  Oates was credited with helping Ilya Kovalchuk thrive, and earned praise from players like Dainius Zubrus, who said last month that Oates’s experience and hockey sense were helpful and that after almost every game he “comes out with his laptop and shows clips, teaching guys.”  Oates, 49, played 1,337 regular-season games in the N.H.L., totaling 341 goals and 1,079 assists, which put him 13th on the career scoring list at the time of his retirement in 2004. Until Tuesday, he was the highest-scoring player not in the Hall.  His 156 playoff points, 25th on the career list, are the most among players who have never won a Stanley Cup.  Only Wayne Gretzky had more assists during the 1990s than Oates, and when Brett Hull scored 70 or more goals for three straight seasons in St. Louis, Oates was his setup man at center until traded in 1992.  “My father was British, and his idol was the great soccer player Stanley Matthews,” Oates said, remembering his childhood in suburban Toronto and his evolution as a playmaker. “My family taught me that if you could be unselfish, your teammates will always like you. Passing became my role. I did it to please my dad.”  Sakic played 20 years for the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche and was captain for 17 seasons. He won two Stanley Cups with Colorado and gold medals with Canada at the Canada Cup and the Olympics. He was an N.H.L. and Olympic most valuable player, and upon retiring in 2009 stood sixth on the N.H.L. career scoring list.  In 1989, Sundin was the first European drafted No. 1 over all and went on to a 18-year career with Quebec, Toronto and Vancouver, serving as the Maple Leafs’ captain for 11 years and becoming the first Swede to score 1,000 N.H.L. points. Although he never won the Stanley Cup, he led Sweden to an Olympic gold medal and three world championships.  Bure left the Soviet Union in 1991 and went on to lead the N.H.L. twice in goals, accumulating 50 or more five times over a 12-season career. His .623 goals-per-game average ranks fifth all-time.  This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:  An earlier version of this article misstated Oates's position on the N.H.L's career scoring list. He is 16th, not 19th. The article also referred incorrectly to Oates being the highest-scoring player not to have won a Stanley Cup.
Adam Oates, who has been an assistant for the Devils for the past two seasons, was named the head coach of the Washington Capitals and a member of the 2012 Hockey Hall of Fame class.