NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Detroit Red Wings, Nicklas Lidstrom 1989
This is where things get very, very interesting. The Detroit Red Wings took Sergei Federov in the fourth round, Henrik Zetterberg in the seventh round, Pavel Datsyuk in the sixth round, and Adam Graves in the second round. These would all be amazing picks, and they are likely the pick if they are on any other team. However, the Red Wings are not any other team. They took the greatest defenseman of all time in the third round.
Nicklas Lidstrom fell to the 53rd pick in the 1989 NHL Draft. He went behind players like defenseman Veli-Pekka Kautonen or defenseman Bob Kellogg or defenseman Rick Corriveau. Those three defensemen played a total of zero NHL games. Lidstrom played in 1,564. In his 20 NHL seasons, all with the Detroit Red Wings mind you, he won the Norris Trophy seven times.
There are few arguments that come without a defense. There is Wayne versus Mario as the greatest forward ever. Depends on who you ask, Brodeur, Roy, or Hasek is the greatest goalie of all time. There is no argument for defenseman. By every single metric, advanced or otherwise, Lidstrom is the best blueliner in the history of this sport. He could score with the best of them, play a physical shut-down style, and he could use his stick to knock the puck off even the best players’ sticks.
This might be the best draft pick of all time. The Red Wings not only got one of the best to play the game of hockey after first drafting Mike Sillinger and Bob Boughner (who honestly weren’t bad players). The Red Wings built a dynasty with this one pick, and they became a force for two decades because they decided to take Nicklas Lidstrom over a player like Jim Mathieson.