tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
No defenseman comes into the league with a “contender for greatest ever” expectation. Even guys like Orr and Gretzky deal with doubts and haters until a certain point in their career. It’s one of those things people talk about after you’ve already hit the “best of a generation” mark.
That being said, I think the expectation for Dahlin is that he’s going to be on the short list for best defenseman of his generation. The hype around him is higher than anything I can remember. People didn’t talk about Hedman or Pronger like this, certainly not Johnson or Ekblad or Berard or Phillips or Jovanovski or Hamrlik. So yes, the expectation is that he could at some point be eligible to be in the conversation with a Lidstrom or Bourque.
That being said, I think the expectation for Dahlin is that he’s going to be on the short list for best defenseman of his generation. The hype around him is higher than anything I can remember. People didn’t talk about Hedman or Pronger like this, certainly not Johnson or Ekblad or Berard or Phillips or Jovanovski or Hamrlik. So yes, the expectation is that he could at some point be eligible to be in the conversation with a Lidstrom or Bourque.
