My question is, which defenseman playing today reminds you of Lidstrom the most in terms of the way they play the game? It goes without saying that no one can compare to his greatness and consistency, but who reminds you of him the most? — from a Lightning fan who wishes he got to see him play 🙂
by Dev_NT
26 Comments
I think Miro Heiskanen is a good comp right now.
Mo Seider
This is hard imo. Nick was a generational dman. He would bat pucks out of mid air to hem the other team in their zone. Make smart plays with the puck. His stick lift and check abilities were other worldly. His shot wasn’t the hardest but it had density. Intentional board bounce passes. Just seen the game and predicted play so well. I see a lot of this in Seider. Especially last night against Calgary. He made so many smart plays with the puck it gave me instant flashbacks of #5. The future is bright for red wings fans !!
No one is close or ever will be. There’s a reason superstar athletes called him The Perfect Human.
He deserved 3 or 4 more Norris trophies.
Hard to say because there is no one like Nick, but not sure how Victor Hedman hasn’t been mentioned yet. It’s Victor Hedman.
He was just always in the right spot and always made the play. You knew if Nick was controlling the breakout it was going to be good. You knew if he was back on a 2v1 the pass was not an option. Check out some games from our 2008 cup run. There’s an amazing youtuber named awood40 who throws up a shit ton of old wings games from all eras damn near.
Great question.
Lidstrom was in a class by himself but in terms of today’s defensemen, Roman Josi comes the closest with his combination of two way play, mobility, and high hockey IQ. Both of their games feature strong gap control and excellent stick defense, and they both have a 6th sense to stay ahead of the play to avoid taking hits.
Defensive highlights are always a bit harder to find than scoring plays but if you skip ahead to about 10 minutes this’ll show some of Josi’s ability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKvCB06lnXs
And now lidstrom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uYzRGfkcDw
Watch how they both use their stick not just to make plays on the puck, but to only commit once the attacker has made their move. They both read the play like it’s happening in slow motion and bait attackers into attempting plays that they’ve already seen coming. Josi plays in a much faster league, so it’s equally as impressive as Lidstrom being not getting constantly bulldozed in 90s hockey.
Lidstrom was a textbook defensive defenseman who played near purely cerebrally and with his stick and only used physicality as a gap closer.
There is no NHL defenseman who plays that style, but it’s a mix of multiple players, Adam Pelech, Jacob Slavin, Charlie McAvoy, Miro Heiskanen to name a few.
The closest current comparable is probably Jacob Slavin on the Hurricanes.
It was Hedman for a while, I haven’t followed him for a bit so I’m not sure if it still is. I remember a few seasons ago Tampa would regularly run an offensive play where they cycled the puck deep, then Hedman would quietly move up into the slot for a one-time slapshot from mid-range. That’s the play I most closely associate with Nick Lidstrom from a PPQB perspective because it was smart, sneaky, and clean every time.
Add in Hedman’s general hockey IQ, how long he’s been dominant, and his off-puck playstyle and I think he’s a good bet. But honestly – you see a little bit of Nick in every single defenseman nowadays who “takes away the passing lane” or “stops a play with good position.” He changed the entire mold.
First name that comes to mind for me is actually Jaccob Slavin.
Honestly, no one. A lot of it has to do with what Nick WITHOUT the puck more than what he did with the puck. In today’s NHL players put up big points, even d-men. But off the puck what Nick did with his stick is what made him the BEST DMAN, imo.
I think Adam Fox is very good comparable.
Gustav Lindstrom is closest bc same last name except for one letter /s
I watched almost every Red Wing I could when I was younger, which includes about 10 full seasons of Nick Lidstrom.
I can say with confidence that there’s no D-man that comes close. That’s because Nick did everything at an elite level, flawlessly night in and night out. There are players who match some aspects of his game but not all of it.
On defense: always in the right spot. His stick could knock any shot or pass out of mid air. His positioning always forced to opposing fwds to less dangerous areas of the ice. When you think the other team has a break away, you’ll soon find that Nick was already 20ft back waiting for them. He never tired because he never had to race to get into position, he could read developing plays better than the players trying to make them. He hardly took a penalties, specially 1 on 1.
In playoffs other teams would try to run at him, but he was so fast at moving the puck up ice with his perfect 1st pass break outs, he would still have time to avoid hits. He barely missed any time due to injury.
If the goalie was down Nick would be there to stop any pucks that got by. (the season after nick’s retirement the wings GaA went up by about 1.5 per game)
On offense: his shot was extremely underrated. It was a laser. He could pick spots. He perfected switching sides with his defense partner and one timing a shot straight down the middle while skating backwards. A move many other Dmen copied. His shots thru traffic always made it on goal or tipped by Homer. The way he ran the power play was so quiet because he always found the open player to pass to and never got in trouble with the puck. He could always hold the puck at the blue line when it got shot down the boards.
He just made it look so damn easy.
No one.
The way he saw the game — his “Hockey IQ” — was off the charts.
He wasn’t flashy and rarely drew eyes, but that was the best thing about him. He was always in the right place and always made the right play.
He could quarterback a powerplay like none other — and that was probably the “flashy” thing about him. He could *control* an entire powerplay. Watching the Red Wings back then, with their puck possession and movement, was a thing to behold. Powerplays were pretty much always 2 full minutes in the other team’s zone, tape-to-tape passes all around, and just *peppering* their goalie with shots. Unless they scored before those 2 minutes were up — which they usually did.
He pretty much never got caught out of position or made a boneheaded play.
He wasn’t especially physical, because he didn’t need to be. He rarely got hit because he moved the puck so well and never put himself in a place to take a big hit.
But even with all of the lauding praise we could heap on him, it’s really hard to explain what it was like to watch him play, and everything he had to offer. But there really are few like him. Seriously, in the history of the league. He had a style of his own — that wasn’t really a style at all. Unless “Always does the right thing” is a style.
Nobody in todays game is as good as the best defenseman in NHL history. Literally nobody plays like him.
I would say Ben Chiarot for sure
He was the best to ever do it as far as pure defense goes. There’s just no comparison. The man was 3 moves ahead. Imagine a player who was not only never out of position, but who could also take that position and immediately turn it into offense with his teammates. He could read the ice like no one else. His dedication, his drive, his natural talent all combined to make the perfect human. There will never be another like him. Hell, I’m sure he could put those skates on today and still play in the league.
The correct answer is nobody.
I vividly remember the buildup before the 97 finals when everybody expected the Legion of Doom to roll over the “light” Red Wings defense, led by Lidstrom. No way could Nik stop Lindros and co. from doing whatever they wanted in front of Vernon.
Lidstrom didn’t outmuscle them, he just shut them down by outsmarting and outplaying them, and went from very good to superstar in 4 games.
He was so good , it’s sometimes easy to forgot that he was there. Everyone from Mario Lemiux to Sidney Crosby would gain the zone and the puck would just come out like they were 4th line centers.
The first cup came against the best offensive line in the league that year. All really big dudes led by Eric Lindros.
Everyone thought Vladdy would be matched up against them sue to their size and physicality.
Lindstrom, and IiRc, Larry Murphy (who was an older offensive D man) made them look like AHL players.
The thing about Lidstrom for me was how mistake free he was. It’s one thing when a talented player does amazing things but a few mistakes get sprinkled in because he’s trying something difficult and people are trying to stop them. But honestly Lidstrom was… his highs were on par with the highs of the best but his lows were there were none. He had no holes. He didn’t get beat by power or speed. Arguably the most mistake free player ever in any sport. I do not say that lightly or with hyperbole. The Yankees have DiMaggio, we have Lidstrom.
He was a good athlete not great. Was probably the smartest player I’ve ever seen. Played the game simply but brilliantly in a sense. As in you never saw him play like Cale Makar, but he arguably dominated more by just playing on the most possession dominant teams.
If you rewatch games he played in a few things stood out- poise with the puck on breakouts, small/tight area passing, elite elite hand eye coordination, positioning is more key to defense than physicality, put on a master class for stick work, elite slap shot when factoring in accuracy as well as power.
I was in my 20s before I realized that tape to tape breakout passes, getting shots through traffic, not controlling 2/3 of the total shots, chances, ozone time wasn’t the norm in the best league in the world lol. It started with him and disseminated down from there.
We were a dynasty and, save for Federov, we did it without having a single thoroughbred athlete or high draft picks. Those wings teams will forever be defined by Lidstrom and his brilliance. Stevie is more recognizable, is definitely is a top 10 center & leader of all time, and almost single-handedly willed the franchise back into relevance, *but* Lidstrom was arguably the better and more important player during the cup and contending years.
You name it, he did it. Except better. The lone exception being physicality. Nick was never really physical, though he could be. He was ALWAYS in, not just the correct position, but perfectly so. Didn’t take the body, didn’t need to. Didn’t turn the puck over in the defensive zone. If 5 got the puck in the D zone, it was out of the D zone.
Offensively, he had the misfortune of having a guy wearing a sweater with 96 on it for a ton of the time he played. Not that he was looking to shoot, but he always knew the right time to. Like, fom center ice in game 3 on the road in Vancouver when you’re already down 2-0 in the series (but that’s a story for another time).
Like The Captain before him, he didn’t have to tell you, he demonstrated every day.
Victor Hedman reminds me of him a lot.
Knew there would be lots of love for Lidstrom and deserved. Loved him and thought he did not get enough credit and some of that was likely due to the way he seemed to play so effectively with minimal effort.
See some ideas Seider is showing signs of greatness but potentially (key word) the Wings have two D with this potential and just one has not really hit yet.
Why would I think that? Lidstrom was watching Wings prospects in SHL, which means he would have seen both Seider and Edvinsson. After he joined the wings staff he was asked about it and he said he had high praise for the potential but mentioned Edvinsson … Will try to remember what he said but it was something like “Edvinsson reminds me of me, but he is bigger and better than I was at that age”. If he reaches the potential he can achieve he noted he could be really special. High praise I thought.
Have to remember neither may be the next TPH but having both at once might be special in it’s own way.