Nicklas Lidstrom: The Perfect Defenseman, The Perfect Teammate, The Perfect Human

Looking back on his Hall of Fame career, it’s hard to imagine 18-year-old Nicklas Lidstrom was passed over in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, but it’s true.

“I was just a late bloomer. I wasn’t one of the best players at the age of 15 or 16. It took me a couple of years to develop into the player I eventually turned into,” Lidstrom said. “When I moved away from home at the age of 16, I started to develop more and more. When I was 18, I felt I had developed a lot in those two years. I was kind of flying under the radar because I wasn’t on the (junior) national team until I was 18.

“At that time, there weren’t many scouts looking at players so if you weren’t on the national team, you weren’t recognized as much, or seen as much.”

Being an unknown allowed Lidstrom to work on his game without the expectations or pressure a player feels, especially during their draft year. He loved the game, but he wasn’t consumed with becoming an NHL player. His objective was simple: get better.

When he made Vasteras, his hometown SHL team, his life changed.

“I made the men’s team in Vasteras, at the age of 18, and started playing against men. Christer Rockstrom, the scout at the time for the Red Wings, he was actually friends with one of the players on my team. This player told Chris, ‘You should come and watch this kid, he’s pretty good. He’s a skinny guy but he’s pretty good.’ That’s how it started. That’s how Christer started watching me.

“Donnie Meehan came over, he was looking at some other players, and he eventually became my agent. He got a hold of Christer and Christer told him — eventually told him, he didn’t tell him at first — but eventually told him that he was there scouting me but he couldn’t tell anyone. So that’s how I ended up with Donnie Meehan. That’s when I realized I had a shot at making the dream, or at least be seen by a scout that I could take the next step to get drafted.”

Rockstrom, a modest man, downplays his role in “discovering” Nick Lidstrom. He admits he did scout him and liked what he saw, but drafting Lidstrom was not part of his job.

“Everybody saw him a year before he got drafted and he went through the draft but the draft was only three rounds for (European) players like that,” Rockstrom said. “So, we saw him and he wasn’t one of the players picked in the top three rounds so the next year, he had made a lot of progress.”

What Rockstrom liked in 19-year-old Lidstrom’s game was his hockey sense and (unflappable) personality. He couldn’t really find a glaring weakness in his game.

“It’s more Neil (Smith) and Kenny (Holland) than me. I recognized him obviously. I had him high on my list but then they were the people that picked and decided,” Rockstrom said. “We had meetings like we always had so it’s teamwork. I find the player, I recognize the talent, I bring it to the next guy and then they make the final decision. I’m a piece of the puzzle but I’m not the decision maker.

“A player like Nick, he keeps scouts alive. He gave me a chance to continue on working. He helped me. I didn’t help him. He would have been drafted by somebody else and would have been good somewhere else if we didn’t pick him. We were lucky we got him. I’m happy I was there when we did it.”

Despite Rockstrom’s insistence Lidstrom was not his pick, many in the Red Wings organization have a different view.

“The person that deserves 90 percent of the credit for Nick is Christer Rockstrom. He was through and through a Christer Rockstrom pick,” said Red Wings senior vice president Jimmy Devellano. “Neil Smith was the chief scout at the time and I know Christer took Neil to see him. He liked him. We liked him. He’s really a Christer Rockstrom-Neil Smith choice.

“It was the third round so I don’t know, we really got lucky. Christer told me, I was the manager, he told me, ‘Jimmy, he needs to stay in Sweden two years.’ Now that bothered me a little bit. I thought maybe one year but two? But he said, ‘He’s got everything but he needs to get bigger and stronger. He needs to get bigger.’ So, third-round pick, there was really no pressure, nobody knew who the hell he was. He came over and holy s*, we had (Steve) Yzerman and (Sergei) Fedorov came at the same time. Holy (Cow), now you’ve got three real players. Then add (Vladimir) Konstantinov to the mix. Then we took off.”

Lidstrom was looking forward to attending the 1989 NHL Entry Draft in Minnesota. It would be his first time in North America and he was convinced the Red Wings were going to pick him, since no other NHL team contacted him, but the Red Wings had another idea.

“Donnie Meehan invited me over — this is when I was 19 — he invited me over and that’s when Christer told me three weeks before going over to Minneapolis for the draft, Christer said, ‘You can’t go. The Red Wings don’t want you to go.’ That’s when I realized there was more secrecy than anything. Before that, I didn’t think much about it really.

“My mind was solely that, if I’m going to be drafted, the Wings are going draft me. So, when they said some other team might see me there. That’s not what I was thinking at all. I was so disappointed, because I thought I was just going to go over there and enjoy the draft and see what it’s like and then be drafted.”

Detroit did draft Lidstrom and he did spend the next two years in Sweden playing for Vasteras. It’s those two years where he says he learned how to play against men, became physically stronger and gained the confidence to become an NHL-caliber player.

“My last year in Sweden, I played for Sweden at the World Championships, I played against some of the top players in the U.S. and Canada, but then in the fall of ’91, before I joined the Wings, I played in Canada Cup. That’s when all the teams were loaded,” Lidstrom said. “Gretzky was on Canada, all the best players, the Russians had their best players, the U.S. So, when I played against them, I realized, I can play against these guys, I should be able to play in the NHL. But you still have that, not sure, you have to go to Detroit and prove yourself still. But I did feel confident going to training camp that year after having played in Canada Cup.”

Lidstrom did make the Red Wings and had an impressive rookie season. He notched 60 points (11-49-60) and finished second to Pavel Bure for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

As a young defenseman, he credits all his defensive partners with giving him the opportunity to develop and grow his game. Each of his partners influenced him as a player.

“I played with Paul Coffey for three years and he wanted to play the left side so I played the right side for three years. That really helped me become a better defenseman. Coff was more of an offensive threat so he would be up ice a lot more than I was, I took a lot of responsibility defensively. Playing with Murph (Larry Murphy), he was a skill guy. To be honest, he wasn’t the fastest guy out there but he was smart with the puck and I think that helped me. That’s why we clicked so well, too, because he was a smart player, good with the puck. Same thing with (Brian) Rafalski, Raffy was a good, smart player, So, they all brought different elements to their games, which I tried to complement. We tried to help each other. I just adjusted to whoever I was playing with, tried to get the best out of the two of us.”

And then there was his first defensive partner, the late Brad McCrimmon.

“The one that really took me under his wing was Beast, Brad McCrimmon. He was my partner every game my first year. I played every single regular-season game, and he was my partner in every game,” Lidstrom said. “We were roommates on the road as well so he really kind of showed me the ropes, taught me what it was like to be a professional, showing up at work every day, just all the little things to become an NHL player. I had a lot of help from Beast at that time when I was young and coming in.

“I remember one play, against the Rangers, one of the players gave me a shot, crosscheck after the whistle in front of our net. I guess just testing me out, kind of being in my face, and Beast came flying in, gave him a big crosscheck and knocked him down. That’s when I got the feeling that he’s there to look after me. He’s going to help me and do whatever he can to kind of protect me so that’s when I felt part of the team. Beast showed right away, don’t mess with him, which made me feel great.”

Early on, it was obvious Lidstrom was a cut above. His ability to play in all situations against the NHL’s very best and log at least 25 to 30 minutes a game without his play nosediving astounded his teammates and opponents. He quickly became regarded as one of the NHL’s top blueliners, but individual recognition came slowly.

He was a two-time Stanley Cup champion when he was finally awarded his first James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2001, at 30 years old. It was the fourth time he was a finalist for the Norris Trophy, but he wasn’t very enthusiastic about showing up to the NHL Awards ceremony.

“After, I believe, it was my third time not winning it, I wasn’t going to go to Toronto for the awards. I’m not going to waste my time going there because I’m not going to win anyways,” Lidstrom said. “I’ve been nominated for it three times and it’s not going to happen so I’m not going to go. So, the league told John Hahn (former Red Wings Communications Director) he should really go, he should really come this time. That’s all they said.

“So, I made it over there. But up until that point, I wasn’t sure. To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure if there was such a thing that Europeans couldn’t win, I wasn’t really sure what to think. But once I got that recognition, the first Norris, I stopped thinking about it. I just went out there, tried to do my best and see where that could take me at the end of the year. Kind of getting over the hump of winning the first Norris, really helped me with everything after that.”

Lidstrom would go on to win six more Norris Trophies, two more Stanley Cups and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the 2002 playoff MVP. He became the Red Wings’ captain when Steve Yzerman retired in 2006, and was the first European-born-and-trained captain to win the Stanley Cup in 2008. Lidstrom never missed the playoffs during his 20-year NHL career.

You would be hard pressed to find many NHL players that had such a decorated career as Nicklas Lidstrom.

“His IQ was different than most people. His IQ strength was no mistakes, no mistakes. If you put a chart on him, if Nick Lidström was getting a loose puck in his own end, two things happened. He passed the puck to his own teammate or the puck was over the blue line,” said Scotty Bowman. “Now what else better can you do than that? The other thing he did, which was always underrated, and it’s the toughest thing for a young defenseman, or even a veteran, what do they do on the point? How many times did they make a wrong decision by shooting a puck to get blocked, by getting a pass intercepted, by falling down on their (butt), I cannot tell you, if he ever got his partner caught.

“Lidström was a guy that played the game the right way in that if he was a pool player, he’d be hard to beat because there’s nothing on the table. To me, that’s how I sum up Nick. You talk about his character, you talk about everything else, you can talk about his durability, all his accolades, but his hockey sense, his hockey IQ was just so above what I’ve ever seen, honestly. I was amazed how he played. There’s been a lot of great defensemen that you can go on the point totals but look at Nick’s point totals and look at everything else, look how good he was defensively. It’s astounding. It’s astounding.”

Niklas Kronwall played with Lidstrom for eight seasons. When Kronwall joined the Red Wings in 2003, Lidstrom was an established star in the NHL and back home in their native Sweden, but Kronwall, believes Lidstrom might be underappreciated because of his easy-going nature.

“Nick, I don’t know what you can say that hasn’t already been said. There’s a reason why they call him the Perfect Human. I have never seen anybody play the game with such ease, unfazed by whatever happened,” Kronwall said. “He could play 35 minutes a night for 82 games and through the playoffs and be the best player every night. That’s how good he was.

“I know he won all those Norris trophies; I know he won four Cups and still, I don’t know if people really realize how good he was. He was incredible. And just the most laid-back person ever. I think people meet him and don’t know that he’s a big-time hockey player. They would never know. So much respect for him.”

At the conclusion of the 2011-2012 season, Lidstrom made the decision to retire after playing 20 seasons for the Red Wings.

“My last few years I knew I had to put in more work and I did to stay at the level (I played at). But I guess what I lacked at the end was the fire within me, that drive to go out there and do it every day,” Lidstrom said. “I expected myself to be a guy that you could play a lot of minutes, you could rely upon late in games, power play, penalty killing, whatever it might be. I didn’t want to become like a seventh defenseman that was in and out of the lineup. I wanted to contribute and if I couldn’t do that, it was my time to hang them up.

“Even though it was one of the toughest decisions I ever made, I knew it was the right decision for me because the drive wasn’t there the way it had been in the past.”

After spending several years away from the game, Lidstrom says he realized, “there are more things in life than just hockey. There are people out there that don’t know about hockey, they don’t care about hockey, they never had that passion for hockey. There are a lot more things in life than just hockey that you can be fond of.”

But his passion for hockey was still burning within him and though he did some scouting for the Red Wings after his retirement, he was named Vice President of Hockey Operations in January 2022.

It was a full circle moment for Lidstrom to rejoin his team, and he becomes reflective when he talks about his relationship with the Red Wings.

“From having a chance to play for an Original Six team, play for the Ilitches for all those years, just the history of the team, the tradition of the team”, Lidstrom said. “All the championships, all the Stanley Cups, how proud I was to become a captain of the Wings, winning a Cup as a captain.

“So, the Red Wings have meant everything to me and my family over the years. We’ve spent over 20 years in the U.S. with the Red Wings. Why? Because I wanted to stay there the whole time, I didn’t want to play for any other teams, I never explored to play for any other teams. The Wings have meant everything to me.”