Mark Howe, a former defenseman, a 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee and currently the Wings' director of pro scouting, called Lidstrom legendary.
"Ever since I've been scouting, I've had him rated the best defenseman in the league for pretty well the whole time," Howe said Wednesday. "We always knew in Detroit how important he is to the team, and to the game of hockey."
Howe recalled a time last year when he was asked to put together a six-man team of the best players he'd seen. He named his dad, former Red Wings great Gordie Howe, as well as Terry Sawchuk, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Lidstrom.
Brian Burke, general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, sent a text to the Free Press calling Lidstrom "a class act. Great player, classy from Day One. A winner, a stud."
Lidstrom leaves a void not easily filled. The Wings will look to free agency to find a replacement for the blue line, and to center Henrik Zetterberg, it is expected, as the next captain.
Lidstrom, 42, took over as the team's official leader in 2006, after the retirement of Steve Yzerman. Yzerman often spoke of what a difference Lidstrom made to the Wings, of how he took them from pretender to contender, of how he was the team's best player, night in and night out.
Lidstrom retires with four Stanley Cups and seven Norris Trophies recognizing him as the game's best defenseman. He also has a Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2002 playoffs, and in 2008, he became the first European born-and-trained player to captain a team to the NHL championship. In 2006, he scored the goal that secured an Olympic gold medal for Sweden.
The Wings announced the news conference Wednesday afternoon, saying simply that Lidstrom and general manager Ken Holland would be attending. Lidstrom didn't respond to attempts to reach him. Holland said from New York, where he was attending GM meetings, that he would stay mum on the matter, that after all his years of service, "Nick has earned the right to make the announcement his way."
The Wings, who drafted Lidstrom 53rd overall in 1989, are certain to retire Lidstrom's No..5, and it is just as certain Lidstrom will be a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
It was well known that Lidstrom was debating retirement. When the Wings cleaned out their lockers April 24, four days after being bounced in the first round of the playoffs, Lidstrom said the biggest issue in regards to whether he'd return would be "motivation."
He acknowledged over the past few years that maintaining the conditioning required for an 82-game regular season was "getting tougher and tougher." This past season, he also suffered the first long-term serious injury of his career, missing 11 games after suffering a deep bone bruise on his right ankle. He was, otherwise, an ironman.
"I know the kind of preparation it takes to play the kind of minutes he did," Howe said. "But on top of just being in incredible condition, you take his smarts and his intelligence, and the fact he didn't waste much energy. He was just that much better than everybody."
Lidstrom retires having played 1,564 regular-season games, second in team history behind Gordie Howe's 1,657, during which Lidstrom had 264 goals and 878 assists. He played in 263 playoff games, contributed 54 goals and 129 assists.
He played a positional game more than a physical one, and while he never collected the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play, he was a six-time finalist, most recently last season.
He picked up the last of his seven Norris Trophies last June, tying Doug Harvey and trailing only Orr's eight.
Through his two decades of play, Lidstrom gained respect and renown, from those close and far. Opposing coaches often raved about him: Ken Hitchcock once spent 10 minutes commending Lidstrom for the way he used his stick. When Nashville coach Barry Trotz shook hands with Lidstrom after their playoff series ended last month, Trotz told Lidstrom to please not retire. In January, former Toronto coach Ron Wilson said he often used clips of Lidstrom to show his players how to play the right way.
The Wings fervently hoped Lidstrom would keep playing, but returning to his native Sweden with his wife, with whom he has four sons, long has been on Lidstrom's horizon.
And so, the young man who came to Detroit wondering if he'd even make it in the NHL, who had studied electrical engineering in case he needed a backup plan, leaves, quite simply, with a legacy of perfection.
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