Mr. Hockey an easy choice for best Red Wing
The Red Wings have featured so many great players, it’s difficult to narrow it to 10. But here we go with the help of fans on social media:
• 1. Gordie Howe — A goal, an assist, a fight says it all. The Gordie Howe Hat Trick is engrained in hockey lore. His statistics were phenomenal. He garnered more than 800 goals and 1,000 assists. He is still the NHL’s alltime leader in games played, even though there were just 70-game seasons most of his career. At 41, Howe was the first-team NHL all star right wing. Mr. Hockey was just that. Being as nice off the ice as he was menacing on it only added to Howe’s legend.
• 2. Steve Yzerman — The leadership qualities Yzerman displayed as the Red Wings’ captain were exceptional. It could be with a glance, or perhaps a few wellchosen words, but mostly it was by example. What’s sometimes lost is just how high he ranks among NHL statistical producers. On career lists, Yzerman is 10th all-time in goals (692) and seventh in points (1,752).
ers. On career lists, Yzerman is 10th all-time in goals (692) and seventh in points (1,752).
• 3. Nicklas Lidstrom — The season before Lidstrom joined the Red Wings, they missed the playoffs. The Red Wings didn’t miss the postseason at all during his 20-year NHL career. He was the only one to play on all four of the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup champions during his era. He was a Red Wings’ best plus-450 in his career and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman seven times despite not getting his first until age 30. Only Bobby Orr won it more. He simply controlled games as if he were operating a joystick. Brilliant.
• 4. Sergei Fedorov — Like the first three on this list could have gone any way, same with numbers three through six. Fedorov played in the shadow of Yzerman and wasn’t always a fan favorite. He won a Hart Trophy as NHL MVP with a genuinely special season early in his career, yet his real value was as a two-way forward. Great skater. There was literally no weakness in his game on either end of the ice.
• 5. Ted Lindsay — His nickname, Terrible Ted, is meant as a great compliment.
There was literally nothing Lindsay wouldn’t do in order to win. And he was only 5-8, too, but unrelentingly tough.
He was highly-skilled, too, leading the league in points one season, and finishing in the Top 10 seven other times. Eight times he was the first-team all-star left winger.
• 6. Terry Sawchuk — Although he had a long career with several different teams, Sawchuk was at his best during his early 20s while leading the Red Wings to multiple Stanley Cup championships. Especially notable was Sawchuk allowing just five goals in eight playoff games, including four shutouts, as the Red Wings swept to the 1952 Stanley Cup championship. He is eighth all-time in career victories with 445, the vast majority coming during three different stints with the Red Wings.
• 7. Pavel Datsyuk — Statistics alone didn’t present the true value of Datsyuk. It was his off-the-chart skill. Arguably the best stick handler and defensive forward of his era. As recently as 2014, in a poll of his peers conducted by The Hockey News, Datsyuk was rated as the second-best NHL player. Only Lidstrom and Fedorov have had a better plus-minus (250) among Red Wings’ players.
• 8. Red Kelly — Kelly was a first-team all-star five times during the Red
Wings’ exceptional run during the 1950s, routinely scoring 15-to-19 goals during an era when it was otherwise unheard of for a defenseman. He was a heady player with a good combination of size and skating ability for his era. It was much deserved when the Red Wings retired his number (4) not long before his passing in 2019.
• 9. Henrik Zetterberg — Like Datsyuk and Fedorov, Zetterberg was a two-way force. Still, he scored at nearly a point-per-game clip during a 15-year career with the Red Wings. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP when the Red Wings captured their most recent Stanley Cup title in 2008.
• 10. Alex Delvecchio — Steady. Consistent. Leader. The trademarks Delvecchio displayed should be understood. He played 24 seasons and ranks 16th all-time in games played, all for Detroit. He is in the top 30 in assists and top 60 in goals. He played on three Stanley Cup winners. He was the Red Wings’ captain for 12 years.