Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroiter
No, the only trophy that only a forward can win is selke. There is no trophy for best forward. All those names you mentioned, Yzerman has had a better career than them. That isn't competition. If Coffey, Chelios, and Bourque had been in their prime then you can make a case. Lidstrom has had no competition whatsoever and that's why he has been able to win so many Norris trophies. The bottomline is that Yzerman had the better career. Just because he didn't win meaningless trophies doesn't mean he was a worse player than those that won them.
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Please define "in their prime."
They won Norris Trophies both before and after Lidstrom came into the league.
Is Lidstrom in his prime now? Please say no.
Coffey was a great player until the mid 90's. Chelios has had great years as a Wing. Obviously, he's not what he was 15 years ago, but he's one of the best ever and has been solid even in the latter part of his career. Bourque was a force until the end of his career. The guy coulda had 2 or 3 more solid seasons.
I just named Norris Trophy winners. Lidstrom played with great, but older, defensemen like Slava Fetisov and Larry Murphy, both Hall of Famers.
What about Konstantinov? During his short career, he was as good as anyone in the NHL. The guy had a plus 60 season, while Lidstrom was his teammate.
Lidstrom played with plenty of GREAT defensemen. You might want to take a peak at the NHL Hall of Fame.
By your argument, Brooks Robinson could never be as good of a third baseman as Dan Schatzeder was a pitcher because there are more pitchers than 3rd basemen to compete against.