To add...........there was a big concern with him, well, not so much a concern as much as we were just waiting for him to bust out. You couldn't blame Jacques Lemaire anymore, he left after 1998, so it was more just it seemed like he was bashful and didn't want to risk skating end to end, or wasn't allowed. He had a career that is very similar to Wade Redden's for their first 10 years. They were 4 years apart, but if you judged Redden and Niedermayer, before, say, his 2004 Norris year it would be similar. You just figured Niedermayer had more upside if he could just get over the hump. But their careers were similar. You figured Redden eventually would put it all together and have a breakout year but it never happened.
I guess this is what sits with me with Niedermayer. He has a weird career curve, even for a defenseman. He was decent prior to the Norris, but in all honesty I wouldn't disagree if someone said Brian Rafalski was more impactful on those Devils teams starting in 2000. You had Stevens, Daneyko, Rafalski and Niedermayer on that defense and it was a darn good defense. But I don't even know if Niedermayer was the 2nd best on that one, and we are talking about a good, but not HHOFer in Rafalski too.
So I guess so much of me remembers him as that guy. He wins the Norris in 2004, is a 1st teamer in 2006 and 2007 and then never really has an elite year after that. Good enough for the HHOF? Yeah, because he won in the postseason and he did that have 2nd team all-star in 1998 and played for Canada a ton. He's good enough that he belongs, but I don't think he belongs more than Rob Blake.
You look at all of the defensemen in the HHOF. How many of them didn't hit their stride until they were around 30? Maybe if Brent Burns get in, that'll be him. But who else? Even the current guys who are locks for the HHOF. Weber, Doughty, Karlsson, etc. all were good in their early 20s. Doughty was a 2nd team all-star his 2nd year. Niedermayer it just seemed floated around the first 10 years of his life and then decided "Hey, I can skate really, really fast, I ought to use that to my advantage."
Oh well, he was good though, albeit a shorter time than it should have been.