Player Discussion: Victor Hedman

[McSpecial DraiBlend]

Came in here looking for info on Hedman and how he was doing. Glad to hear how well he has developed. Being Swedish ancestory I always seem to find myself rooting for players from there.
Some of you calling him your MVP so far is some mighty praise.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Came in here looking for info on Hedman and how he was doing. Glad to hear how well he has developed. Being Swedish ancestory I always seem to find myself rooting for players from there.
Some of you calling him your MVP so far is some mighty praise.

He's definitely earned it. Never took a night off this season. Can't say the same for anyone else right now.

 

[The Macho King]

Came in here looking for info on Hedman and how he was doing. Glad to hear how well he has developed. Being Swedish ancestory I always seem to find myself rooting for players from there.
Some of you calling him your MVP so far is some mighty praise.

You won't find a single lightning fan that would say he's been anything BUT our best player this season. If he played in a larger market this year he'd be getting ridiculous hype. I'm personally torn. I want everyone to know how great he's playing, but I'm glad no one knows.

 

[bzer]

Great hearing about Hedman.

Curious about Aulie though. How is he doing?

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Great hearing about Hedman.

Curious about Aulie though. How is he doing?

Hes been good. Not great, not awful, just good. His play is leaps and bounds ahead of last seasons play.

 

[The Macho King]

Hes been good. Not great, not awful, just good. His play is leaps and bounds ahead of last seasons play.

Which is totally fine for a third pairing player. If/when we get Gudas up here, we'll have a good shutdown third pairing that could ease Hedman/Salo's load on the D-side of things. As of right now, though, Hedman/Salo is our only reliable option against top competition.

 

[CC321]

Gudas would be a good match to play with Carle IMO. He has the physical game that Carle lacks. G is faster and better defensively than Brewer, better passer also. Gudas is only 6'0, but with his strength and aggresiveness he can handle and intimidate larger forwards.

What our D should look like.
Hedman-Salo
Carle-Gudas
Aulie-Brewer
Lee

Lee does have a lot of potential. I can see why they want to keep him around, and he's only 25, so he can still mature into a reliable player. Still needs help in recognizing dangerous situations though.

I'm still a Korobov fan. He's better defensively than anyone in the Lightning organization, Hedman and Salo included. Since he doesn't currently speak English, I'll give the org. a temporary pass for not giving him a shot until next season. My 2 cents.

 

[Garl]

Gudas would be a good match to play with Carle IMO. He has the physical game that Carle lacks. G is faster and better defensively than Brewer, better passer also. Gudas is only 6'0, but with his strength and aggresiveness he can handle and intimidate larger forwards.

What our D should look like.
Hedman-Salo
Carle-Gudas
Aulie-Brewer
Lee

Lee does have a lot of potential. I can see why they want to keep him around, and he's only 25, so he can still mature into a reliable player. Still needs help in recognizing dangerous situations though.

I'm still a Korobov fan. He's better defensively than anyone in the Lightning organization, Hedman and Salo included. Since he doesn't currently speak English, I'll give the org. a temporary pass for not giving him a shot until next season. My 2 cents.

That's definately wrong though. Have seen Korobov many times and if he was better than Salo defensivly, he would have been in NHL long ago. Because offensivly he's fine. But he is not that good defensivly in fact.

 

[CC321]

I disagree, everyone has an opinion though.

 

[zeykshade]

That's definately wrong though. Have seen Korobov many times and if he was better than Salo defensivly, he would have been in NHL long ago. Because offensivly he's fine. But he is not that good defensivly in fact.

Korobov and Gudas are head and shoulders ahead of any other pairing for the Crunch at least. They shut it down like a couple o' bosses.

 

[Garl]

Korobov and Gudas are head and shoulders ahead of any other pairing for the Crunch at least. They shut it down like a couple o' bosses.

That's nice, doesn't make him a better defenseman than Salo or Hedman(espescially this season) defensivly. Offensivly I can't say that Salo or Hedman are elite. Salo was always a just good offensivly, and Hedman isn't there yet. So if Korobov was better than your first pairing defensemen defensivly then why he is not in the NHL? As a person who saw his game for 3 seasons I can see why, and not speaking English isn't the main reason. He's an intresting raw defenseman, but well raw.

 

[zeykshade]

That's nice, doesn't make him a better defenseman than Salo or Hedman(espescially this season) defensivly. Offensivly I can't say that Salo or Hedman are elite. Salo was always a just good offensivly, and Hedman isn't there yet. So if Korobov was better than your first pairing defensemen defensivly then why he is not in the NHL? As a person who saw his game for 3 seasons I can see why, and not speaking English isn't the main reason. He's an intresting raw defenseman, but well raw.

And I wasn't disagreeing with you.

Korobov is better than Aulie defensively. Aulie is better at throwing fists, even though he hasn't had to this year. Could easily make an argument for Korobov being a #5/6 in Tampa. Don't care about how he played outside of the Bolts organization. He's clearly been tasked with developing his stay at home D skills in the AHL, and he's looked nothing but rock solid. Paired with Gudas, Gudas has been allowed to move the puck and chip in offensively.

Of course why bring up a big bodied D-man to play #5/6 minutes when he can get much more TOI to develop his game in the A.

 

[wr50l]

I don't see much of the Lightning so I am came to ask the people who do about Victor Hedman.

Hedman was of course touted as a Chris Pronger type of player when he was drafted, a generational talent who could produce at an elite level with and without the puck. At 22 going on 23 with four full NHL seasons, conventional wisdom would suggest that Hedman is about to reach the beginning of his prime.

Where do those who watch him play throughout the year see his career going at this point? What is his ceiling and how close is he to reaching it currently?

Thanks.

 

[The Macho King]

His ceiling is multiple Norris'. I see him reaching it any time now.

One of the things that hurts his perception nationally is that he doesn't get #1PP time. That's not because he isn't good on the PP, but rather because he's our #1PK guy as well as our shutdown guy, and with other decent options as the PP guy, he doesn't get a ton of time there. Look at the best offensive Dmen in the league, and you'll see they probably get a full half of their points (if not more) on the PP, which Hedman isn't getting. He still produces ES very well, he's amazing with the puck, he's a rock solid defender, and he's severely underrated.

Which I'm fine with. I can think of maybe 5 Dmen in the league I'd rather have, and a couple of those are borderline. He's a beast.

 

[MattM92]

His ceiling is multiple Norris'. I see him reaching it any time now.

One of the things that hurts his perception nationally is that he doesn't get #1PP time. That's not because he isn't good on the PP, but rather because he's our #1PK guy as well as our shutdown guy, and with other decent options as the PP guy, he doesn't get a ton of time there. Look at the best offensive Dmen in the league, and you'll see they probably get a full half of their points (if not more) on the PP, which Hedman isn't getting. He still produces ES very well, he's amazing with the puck, he's a rock solid defender, and he's severely underrated.

Which I'm fine with. I can think of maybe 5 Dmen in the league I'd rather have, and a couple of those are borderline. He's a beast.

Pretty much this. He's still prone to make a dumb play pretty rarely but he's also still very young. The only knock I have against him is his physical game could use some work, but he gets the job done

 

[Jacko95]

Just to see how good his offensive game is:

He was the defender with the 4th most even strength points !!! Just behind Letang, Yandle and Byfuglien!!

 

[BoltSTH]

His big strength is his skating. When he decides to go walk about he seems to be gliding up the ice, then you see the opposing forwards unable to keep up and realize how fast he is skating.

He is only 22 and getting better each season, so I agree ceiling is All Star/Norris.

 

[Yzlamic Preacher*]

His big strength is his skating. When he decides to go walk about he seems to be gliding up the ice, then you see the opposing forwards unable to keep up and realize how fast he is skating.

He is only 22 and getting better each season, so I agree ceiling is All Star/Norris.

This.

This doesn't get enough credit. His biggest strength is unbelievable uncharacteristic skating.

 

[Doctor Drej]

If he got some more PP time, he'd get noticed more. We just can't afford to exchange PK minutes for PP minutes though. We have Salo and Carle for the PP. And next year we're going to be facing some tough PP's in the new division as well.

It's a crying ass shame that the only reason he doesn't get noticed more is because of points when he's a defenseman.

 

[MattM92]

If he got some more PP time, he'd get noticed more. We just can't afford to exchange PK minutes for PP minutes though. We have Salo and Carle for the PP. And next year we're going to be facing some tough PP's in the new division as well.

It's a crying ass shame that the only reason he doesn't get noticed more is because of points when he's a defenseman.

Well look at the last 2 Norris winners. Both are PMD's (especially Karlsson) that have flashy offensive games compared to just average defense. I'd take Karlsson in a heartbeat and maybe Subban too (I think he has character issues), so it's no slight against them, just pointing out what gets noticed.

 

[Sky04]

If he got some more PP time, he'd get noticed more. We just can't afford to exchange PK minutes for PP minutes though. We have Salo and Carle for the PP. And next year we're going to be facing some tough PP's in the new division as well.

It's a crying ass shame that the only reason he doesn't get noticed more is because of points when he's a defenseman.

What? He got plenty of notice for his early season play, he was in Norris talks after the first 20 games, obviously we didn't go hyping him up after only 20~ good games, kid needs to play like that for a full season or 2.

His play also noticeably got worst in the last quarter where he started having defensive lapses and terrible decision making like he did his first 2 years.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Consistency could be an issue going forward. As sky04 pointed out he was in Norris talks halfway through a shortened season - without getting much PP time. At the end of the season though he was far from stellar. And that's just a 48 games season.

Also, as much as I would love for him to play the body more it's a little bit unsettling that he has yet to play a full season. So far he has missed 36 regular season games over 4 NHL seasons (over 12%).

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

I watched him a bit out of interest for a fantasy league, and his skating is really amazing, especially for his size. But it seems like he still struggles with defensive coverage down low and positioning in general. That's hardly surprising for a young d-man but how well he improves those skills could determine if he becomes Norris calibre or just an average top pairing defenseman. I suppose he could also start piling up points on the PP but that hasn't showed signs of happening yet.

 

[Jacko95]

I watched him a bit out of interest for a fantasy league, and his skating is really amazing, especially for his size. But it seems like he still struggles with defensive coverage down low and positioning in general. That's hardly surprising for a young d-man but how well he improves those skills could determine if he becomes Norris calibre or just an average top pairing defenseman. I suppose he could also start piling up points on the PP but that hasn't showed signs of happening yet.

For me he is already an average top pairing guy. As said before consistency is the issue. Some games he is this surfire Norris candidate and the next game he makes some bonehead decisions.

It's not like he is unable to play the powerplay, he is just not allowed to play it because we need him more on the PK.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Hedman. Or rather: Hedmonster, son! Wow, has he been on fire this season or what? I love how he was finally let off the leash offensively by Cooper, how he's leading the breakout, using his size and reach to make plays and the fact that he's finally hitting the net with his shots.

Despite missing a handful of games he's 13th in scoring and tied 2nd in goals scored among all NHL defensemen.

I can't explain how he was left off the Swedish Olympic roster but it seems to have motivated him even more.