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Lidstrom, Fedorov elected to Hockey Hall of Fame
Most NHL talent scouts and general managers agree that finding two NHL players in the annual entry draft is considered a resounding success. Imagine, then, finding two Hall of Famers in the same draft. On consecutive picks. And in the third and fourth rounds.
The Hockey Hall of Fame validated what the Detroit Red Wings and their fans have been saying for years about that 1989 NHL draft, when they selected defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom in the third round (53rd overall) and center Sergei Fedorov in the fourth (74th overall).
"The best draft in history. Period," said Wings senior vice president Jim Devellano, the general manager at the time who authorized those selections -- and some other good ones that year. "At least no one has shown me a better one. Not even close."
Lidstrom, a seven-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman and owner of four Stanley Cup rings, and Fedorov, whose cache of silverware includes a Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player and three Stanley Cup wins, headline a multi-national class of 2015 entering the Hall of Fame. The Hall also announced today it will welcome two more brilliant defensemen: American Phil Housley and Canadian Chris Pronger.
Detroit should be especially proud of this year's inductees, who also include: Harper Woods-bred Angela Ruggiero, one of the most decorated women in hockey and the youngest player on Team USA's gold medal-winning Olympic team at Nagano, Japan, in 1998; and Peter Karmanos, the co-founder of Compuware Corp., sponsor of one of the most generous and prolific youth hockey programs in the nation. He also owns the Carolina Hurricanes and, until recently, the Plymouth Whalers.
This is why we call it Hockeytown.
Lidstrom, from Vasteras, Sweden, who according even to Bobby Orr (eight Norris trophies with Boston) belongs in the debate about who is the best defenseman in the history of the game, and Fedorov, from Pskov, Russia, who for some years in his prime was widely acknowledged to be the best all-around player in the world, were locks to be inducted in their first year of eligibility.
I once asked Steve Yzerman, nearing the end of his own Hall of Fame career, to put into perspective the immense talent Lidstrom brought to the game.
"I'll put it this way," Yzerman said. "Nick Lidstrom is the best player I've ever played with. Ever."
And considering his career in the NHL, in World and Olympic championships, in All-Star games and more, Yzerman played with them all. He also said frequently that he ranked Fedorov right up with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux among those ultra-elite, game-controlling players.
Mike Keenan was once even more blunt in lauding Fedorov. In the early 1990s, Keenan was coach and general manager of some pretty good Chicago Blackhawks teams, taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992. Fedorov's NHL career was just beginning, though spectacularly.
One of Chicago's visits to Joe Louis Arena didn't go the Blackhawks' way, and Keenan blamed -- or credited -- one guy in the Detroit lineup.
"When Sergei Fedorov was on the ice, we didn't have a chance," Keenan said. "It was men against boys."
For the record, that 1989 draft produced six outstanding NHL players: Center Mike Sillinger (first round, 11th overall, 1,049 NHL games with several teams); defenseman Bob Boughner (second round, 32nd overall, 630 NHL games); Lidstrom (1,564 NHL games); Fedorov (1,248 NHL games); right wing Dallas Drake (sixth round, 116th overall, 1,009 NHL games); and defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov (11th round, 221st overall), who was well on his way to a Hall of Fame career himself before it ended after just 446 games because of catastrophic injuries he sustained just six days after the Wings won the Cup in 1997.
Also for the record, Lidstrom and Fedorov, both 45, bring to nine the number of players from Detroit's 2002 Stanley Cup team to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. They join: Igor Larionov (class of 2008), Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille (2009), Chris Chelios and Brendan Shanahan (2013) and Dominik Hasek (2014). Other Hall of Fame members of that team: Coach Scotty Bowman (1991), owner Mike Ilitch (2003), and Devellano (2010).
Other members of that team almost certain to join the HHOF one day: GM Ken Holland and center Pavel Datsyuk.
One final thought regarding that 1989 draft and that mother lode of talent: Monday's Hall of Fame announcement should have been a special moment for Neil Smith and Christer Rockstrom. Smith was Detroit's chief scout at the time. He hired Rockstrom as the team's lead European scout, and Rockstrom's the guy who found Lidstrom and urged the Wings to take a flyer on Fedorov, who at the time became the highest selection of a Soviet-born player by an NHL team.
Credit where credit is due, eh?
