A few weeks ago, I shared a Hot Take that got some fairly mixed responses. Some agreed with me, while others wanted to burn me at the stake. My belief is that, if Nick Lidstrom was Canadian, he’d universally be considered the greatest defenseman of all time.
Today, I’m going to tell you why.
First, let’s get this out of the way
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that Bobby Orr is one of the greatest defensemen of all time. He’s the reason defensemen aren’t all stay-at-home guys. Orr is far and beyond one of the best players to ever take to the ice.
Orr’s flying goal is perhaps the most iconic goal in the history of the NHL. The whole point of this piece isn’t meant to downplay the incredible accomplishments Orr had throughout his career. I mean, the guy had six 100-point campaigns and eight Norris trophies.
He’s a legend. No doubt about it.
This is by no means meant to downplay the feats Orr achieved. Nick Lidstrom is just genuinely that good.
“But Jake,” you might be asking, “how? He has fewer Norris trophies and never scored a 100-point season”.
Let’s discuss:
What is a model defenseman?
The role of a defenseman is not the same that it was 20 years ago, much less 50+ years ago. Orr entered the league in an era where defensemen were comfortable in their own zone. They’d occasionally contribute to offense here and there, but, until Orr, they stayed in their own lane.
In Lidstrom’s era, the league had two full decades to acclimate to Orr’s style of play. Defensemen with offensive acumen weren’t just the requirement, they were the norm. Guys like Ray Bourque and Brian Leetch regularly took on offensive roles with their respective teams.
A model defenseman in the modern era of hockey has to excel at both ends of the ice. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule (Jaccob Slavin is one of the best defensive defensemen in hockey), but it’s expected that defensemen at least participate on the offensive end of things.
Every modern defenseman, from Cale Makar to Quinn Hughes, directly cites Lidstrom as the type of player they model their game after.
“Lidstrom, the longtime Red Wings captain and seven-time Norris Trophy winner, was one of [Makar’s] defensive influences growing up. - Peter Baugh, The Athletic
Orr revolutionized what it meant to be a defenseman. By the time Lidstrom played his first NHL game, there was nothing left to revolutionize. Orr invented the prototypical defenseman. Lidstrom perfected what it meant.
The eras tour
Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Pavel Bure are just a handful of players Lidstrom faced night in and night out. Three of the top goaltenders of all time - Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, and Dominik Hasek - all played in Lidstrom’s era.
Orr, on the other hand, started his career in the late 1960s and continued through the 70s. His dominance came during the pre-expansion era NHL, where only six teams existed. During that time, superstars like Guy LaFleur regularly smoked up to a pack of cigarettes a day. Some even smoked between periods!
The butterfly style, a goaltending position utilized by every goalie in the NHL, hadn’t caught on yet. Goaltending pads were smaller. Wayne Gretzky had yet to play a single NHL game. To say it was a different era is an understatement.
Players drank at a much higher clip and often chose beer as their drink of choice. Nowadays, per CBC, they tend to avoid beer for fear it’ll upset their athletic routines. The focus on strength and conditioning became a focal point in the early 2000s, when Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin took the stage.
If 2005 is considered the start of the “modern era of hockey”, Lidstrom played seven years of it.
To be fair, athletes don’t get to pick their competition. Orr can only play the opponents across the ice from him. This isn’t meant to downplay his accomplishments so much as it is to shine a light on what Lidstrom was up against.
But we have to address the elephant in the room. Players in Lidstrom’s era were taller, faster, stronger, and came into the league with decades of prep against an offensive defenseman.
Availability: the best ability
Lidstrom, as we’ve established, has never been an offense-first guy. He’s more of an “eraser” type defenseman in that he was able to nullify the production of the top players of his era.
This is no small feat. Through two decades of his career, he put a stop to the most prolific goal scorers of his era. This is a feat surpassed by few, if any. But do it over the span of two decades without ever missing a step is another thing entirely. Here’s a clip of Lidstrom, 42, shutting down the top team in the division at the time: the St. Louis Blues.
This is where Lidstrom has a clearcut advantage.
Orr played 657 career NHL games, racking up an impressive 915 points along the way. Lidstrom, on the other hand, played 1,564 games with 1,142 points. That’s an extra 907 games: over two times as many games as Orr. It’s entirely possible that, if Orr played as many games as Lidstrom, we’d be calling him the greatest player of all time.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know that timeline. Persistent injuries stymied Orr’s career until he couldn’t play any longer. It’s a shame, too: who knows what Orr could’ve done if he had another decade’s worth of play?
Availability, as coaches often say, is the best ability. If you asked the average NHL GM if they’d rather have an outstanding player for two decades or nine seasons of generational play and three oft-injured seasons, they’re going with the first player every time.
Canadian bias
My initial tweet, which has now apparently made its way to Facebook, mentioned that Lidstrom would be considered the best if he was Canadian. Let me clarify that a bit:
There’s been extensive coverage on how media conglomerates like Sportsnet and TSN prioritize coverage of teams like the Maple Leafs. Hockey media, in the past, has taken an unfair slant against European players (specifically Russians). One of the most notable examples in recent history was the Toronto Sun’s “Swedish Meatballs” article poking at William Nylander’s production (and nationality).
“William Nylander is like buying furniture from IKEA with the instructions somehow missing from the package. You know you have all the parts — you see them in front of you — you just have no real idea of how to put it all together.” - An actual quote from an actual publication about a Swedish player
It’s fair to admit that Canadian media will, of course, lean a little more in favor of Canadian players. That bias doesn’t just exist with Canadian media: you can see nationality biases across Major League Baseball, too. But to pretend it doesn’t exist is disingenuous at best. We’d be calling Anze Kopitar one of the best two-way forwards of all time if he was Andre King from Ontario.
Conclusion: What constitutes “the best”?
I believe Bobby Orr is the better player. He’s generational offensively and unbelievable in the defensive end. Lidstrom, on the other hand, is the better defenseman. Two decades of dominance and seven Norris trophies in the span of ten years more than cements Lidstrom’s dominance. The thing is, it’s just so close that it’s almost impossible to tell who’s the superior player.
I give the edge to Lidstrom due to his longevity and ability to excel well into his late-30s - early 40s. Had Orr played another few seasons, I doubt this would be a debate at all.
Whether a new defenseman rises up to take that mantle is anyone’s guess. Maybe we’ll have a Makar vs. Lidstrom debate in a decade or two. That’s what makes hockey such an incredible sport: save for (probably) Wayne Gretzky, there’s never going to be a GOAT positionally. The game just keeps evolving.