Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroiter
Lidstrom is a top 2 at his position because of the competition. There just haven't been many good defenseman during Lidstrom's time. Pronger and Blake have been injured. Stevens is overrated. Bourque and Chelios were older. Lidstrom hasn't had competition and that's why he's been able to win the award. Look what Yzerman has gone up against: Gretzky, Mario, Messier, Sakic, Forsberg, Francis, Lindros, Jagr, Fedorov, Hull, Modano, etc. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting some names.
Lidstrom is #3 and will remain #3 no matter what he wins. Heck, Draper, Maltby, McCarty, and Holmstrom have more hardwar than Yzerman. Just because Yzerman was overlooked and didn't win the awards he won doesn't mean Lidstrom had the better career. IMO Lidstrom doesn't even come close. Let's not forget that Yzerman played alot of his career with a bad knee.
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Since Lidstrom was drafted by the Wings, the following have won the Norris Trophy:
Ray Borque -- 3x (won it a few times before Lidstrom drafted)
Chelios -- 2x
Coffey -- 1x (won it a few times before Lidstrom drafted)
Leetch -- 2x
Blake
MacInnis
Pronger
Niedemeyer
If you want to just look at who won Norris Trophies after Lidstrom came in the league, I think you have to subtract 2 of Borque's trophies as they came in 1989 and 1990 (I believe)
His playing career has overlapped with
all those guys while they were still great players. Lidstrom's head and shoulders above all of them!
You wanna compare Yzerman's competition at the forward position. Great. Don't forget that there are more forwards than defensemen. The high skill guys, for the most part, end up a winger or center. So, of course, there should have been more competition for him than for Lidstrom.
I haven't counted the NHL trophies by position, but aren't there more trophies that forwards can win than defensemen? If that's true, Yzerman had more chances to win hardware than Lidstrom.