The Top 20 Red Wings of All-Time, #2

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

It kind of annoys me that it's as close as it is. To me this one is just a no brainer.

Stevie Y's era was littered with guys just like him and there were two guys that we're a lot better than him (Gretzky and Lemieux). Lidstrom was arguably the best at his position during his era, you'd get laughed at for saying the same about Yzerman.

Littered with guys just like him? He was the clear #3 behind the two best players to ever play the history of the sport.

You should be getting laughed at for saying there is no comparison between the 7th leading scorer of all time who spent the entire 2nd half of his career playing it on one leg as a perennial Selke candidate, PPG center and Nick Lidstrom.

Lidstrom was arguably the best D in the league... but what the hell... he didn't have Larry Robinson and Bobby Orr in their primes playing in the league when he did. It's a terrible argument to say "Yzerman was never the best in the league" when his competition IS the two best players to ever lace them up.

It is a tough choice between the two. Lidstrom is as fine a player as they come. But it is massively underrating one of the guys if you say one is definitively better than the other.

 

[opivy]

Yzerman was the captain at a young age, he defined what it meant to be a modern era Red Wing through his captaincy and locker room presence. He was the rebirth and centerpiece of the franchises rise to glory.

Lidstrom had a big part in continuing it, but Yzerman laid the path and passed the torch. Stevie hit the shot over Cujo's shoulder, Steve lifted the cup the first time first. He is arguably one of the greatest captains of all time in the sport of hockey and he was the captain for almost his entire career as a Wing.

Lids is arguably the better player (I think its a two way street here, and that center is a much more demanding position, and that Yzerman could be easily deemed the better player by some.) but Steve Yzerman defined for generations to come with the absence of Gordie what it meant to be a Red Wing, Lidstrom followed him.

 

[TheMule93]

Should we even bother with a poll for #3 or just skip to 4

 

[haulinbass]

I can't even vote on this... I wouldn't feel right if I picked one over the other.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I love Yzerman and the Wings, but considering that goal had zero influence on the Red Wings winning the cup, I consider it one of the most overrated goals of all-time.

Definitely one of the more overrated Wings goals to me. Every time I see it I have to check myself thinking, "they lost that year, right?" to make sure I'm remembering it correctly.

It's a very dramatic moment but the Wings still couldn't get past Colorado, which was the real obstacle to winning the Cup.

 

[Martinez]

4 should be interesting, I've been watching documentaries on old wings. I'm thinking delvechhio

 

[Bench]

This is a good debate because some of you guys have made me think I should have voted Yzerman.

 

[opivy]

4 should be interesting, I've been watching documentaries on old wings. I'm thinking delvechhio

I agree, I have to give the nod to Delvecchio who was a Wings lifer as a player as well as a coach. Hes in the top 3 of almost every record in the history of the team as well. If this poll is conducted again in 20 years he may end up #2 honestly.


On that note I was thinking Sid Abel for #5. Player, coach, radio announcer. He was a Red Wing through and through, while his entire career wasn't here the vast majority was and he was involved in so many facets with the team outside of just playing and coaching.

 

[Nut Upstrom]

I agree, I have to give the nod to Delvecchio who was a Wings lifer as a player as well as a coach. Hes in the top 3 of almost every record in the history of the team as well. If this poll is conducted again in 20 years he may end up #2 honestly.


On that note I was thinking Sid Abel for #5. Player, coach, radio announcer. He was a Red Wing through and through, while his entire career wasn't here the vast majority was and he was involved in so many facets with the team outside of just playing and coaching.

Hard to argue with anything you've said, but it seems to me that Terry Sawchuck needs to fit into the top 5 somewhere.

As for the current vote, I took Lidstrom over Yzerman without any second thoughts. Just feel that Nik meant more to the team's success than Stevie did, and I love Stevie of course.

As for Stevie being the better Red Wing, the guy is in Tampa now and is unlikely to come back.

 

[Puck Tiss]

As an outsider, you could almost graph the success of the Red Wings on a graph and it correlates to Lidstroms career.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Should we even bother with a poll for #3 or just skip to 4

Yes, Lids deserves his own thread.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Depends how you interrupt the question, Yzerman was the greatest red wing ever, but Lidstrom was the better hockey player. Yano?

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Yzerman was the captain at a young age, he defined what it meant to be a modern era Red Wing through his captaincy and locker room presence. He was the rebirth and centerpiece of the franchises rise to glory.

Lidstrom had a big part in continuing it, but Yzerman laid the path and passed the torch. Stevie hit the shot over Cujo's shoulder, Steve lifted the cup the first time first. He is arguably one of the greatest captains of all time in the sport of hockey and he was the captain for almost his entire career as a Wing.

Lids is arguably the better player (I think its a two way street here, and that center is a much more demanding position, and that Yzerman could be easily deemed the better player by some.) but Steve Yzerman defined for generations to come with the absence of Gordie what it meant to be a Red Wing, Lidstrom followed him.

It wasn't CuJo. Jon Casey was the goalie for St. Louis in that game.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

It's tied exactly 23 to 23 right now. That's crazy. This is really close. And honestly? I didn't think it would be. I thought Yzerman would run away with it. So I'm really happy to see so many people appreciate what Lidstrom brought to the franchise. Having that elite defender for 20 years is incredible.

I don't think this is that hard without the ambiguity of what we are voting on. If it is most talented player this is Lidstrom.

As I said in poll one, when I think Red Wings I think Steve Yzerman. I associate him with the team first and foremost and I always will, it is why they stamped the C on the banner hung for him.

When Demers promoted Yzerman as the youngest Captain at the time in league history he said something along the lines of he wanted a guy with the Red Wings logo tattooed on his chest. But by being promoted in 86, I have to think he played the most games in league history while wearing a C, certainly with one team. Not sure if Messier has him in general there. But Yzerman has to have played close to 1300 regular season games as the undisputed leader of the team, which is incredible.

They are two different questions. It depends on how you want to look at it. When you ask me who the greatest Red Wing of all-time is, for me it is Steve Yzerman, the Captain.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Yzermans pulling away now. It's almost time to make a poll number 3. If we even should

 

[SoupNazi]

Yzermans pulling away now. It's almost time to make a poll number 3. If we even should

This one is going to play out to the end tomorrow; Lidstrom is certainly still within striking distance.

 

[Shadywing19]

The captain. And it's not even close for me. Yzerman was my idol growing up. Is the single reason I'm a wings fan. I love nick. And he's my hands down #3. But for me. Stevie's number one. Not even #2. (I'm too young to have experienced gordie. He's had little to no impact on my life as a wings fan)