Couple of points to follow up Nieds was in the mix, with Lidstrom for top Dman in an integrated league with the Europeans and united states also providing great Dmen during his time period so it's a little bit better than being the top Dman say in the late 40's for the same time period for example IMO.
I remember Niedermayer in the mix with Pronger for the best defenseman in the league not named Lidstrom. I don't remember him in the mix with Lidstrom over any decent length of time.
That does bring an interesting argument though - in a European-less NHL, does Niedermayer win 3 straight Norris trophies?
1st to 95 as a 21 year old he was still 6th in team scoring 4th in plus/minus (and sure Stevens got the tougher assignments I recognize that) it's fair to say that he was the 2nd best Dman overall on that drive and perhaps 5-8th for position players.
On the 1995 Cup winner, Claude Lemieux, Scott Stevens, Martin Brodeur, and Stephane Richer were all easily the 4 most important players. I think Randy McKay, Bobby Carpenter, and Neil Broten may have been more important than Niedermayer. Niedermayer wasn't even necessarily the 2nd most important defenseman on the team. He was still raw defensively and Lemaire broke up the Stevens-Niedermayer pairing early. Shawn Chambers was Stevens' partner against Jagr and Ken Daneyko was Stevens' partner against Lindros.
So I'd say Niedermayer was 5th-10th in terms of importance on that team. Meh.
In 00 he is 10th in team playoff scoring and 1st in Dman minutes to Stevens 25.28 to 25.25.
Rafalski was next with 21.25. a top 3-5 position player that year for that team.
10th in team playoff scoring for a defenseman who didn't get any of the tough matchups? Meh.
Niedermayer was an effortless skater so he could log huge minutes. But there is no way he was as important as Stevens, Elias, or Arnott, and Brodeur proved his importance in the finals. All of Stevens minutes were tough - strictly matched against top lines and an absurd amount of PK time. Niedermayer got a ton of minutes because... he was a lot better than the guys on the bottom pairing at even strength and played both special teams.
Niedermayer was an important support player, but so were Petr Sykora (the 3rd part of the best line in hockey) and Bobby Holik (the best checking center in hockey). Claude Lemieux has a case but I'd probably take Nieds. Brian Rafalski outscored Niedermayer 8-7, while playing with Scott Stevens at even strength against tough opposition. So... Nieds was 5th-9th in importance.
Again, meh.
I'm not denying Niedermayer's importance in 2003 - IMO, he was even better than he was in 2007 when he won the Smythe.
I would also add that for those who might be giving some sort of credit for not playing in WW2 that they also consider that Nieds could have still kept playing but retired at age 36 to be with his family.
No offense, but that's a terrible analogy. Lots of players "could have kept playing" but retired for various reasons. A better analogy would be that Niedermayer won a Norris before the lockout, missed a year, then was 2nd to Lidstrom the next two seasons. For a player with such a short peak, that 1 missing season could be critical to his legacy.
Quite simply he had won at every level and that's extremely important at the end of the day IMO.
IMO, winning in the minor leagues is not relevant at all. And Canadian pros couldn't compete in international tournaments until very recently. And is his winning record any better than Eddie Gerard's, Marcel Pronovost's, or the 60s or 70s Canadien defensemen who are available?
Anyway, if someone values absolute peak really highly and doesn't care as much about longevity as an elite player, I can see voting for Niedermayer now. But I don't think exaggerating his importance in his first two Cup wins is particularly useful. He was a lot more than a role player in 1995 and 2000, but he wasn't a star either.
Edit: I think Niedermayer's early playoff success as a secondary player is relevant when comparing him to someone like Rob Blake (who otherwise has a very similar record to Nieds IMO). But pretending he was a star back then is revisionist history.