Let me set the rules so we don't just list Hall of Famers. The question isn't who the best Red Wing ever was. We all know that argument ends with Howe or Lidstrom depending on the decade you were born in. The question is who is YOUR guy. The one whose jersey you bought, the one whose goals you still have memorized, the one you defend in arguments that aren't even close.
For me it's Pavel Datsyuk and it isn't particularly close. I have never seen a human being do things with a puck that made less sense. He turned defensemen into traffic cones. He won two Selkes while being the most skilled player on the ice, which shouldn't be allowed. I named a cat after him. I am not embarrassed about any of that.
Who's yours, and the why matters more than the name.
datsyuk obviously but i feel like that's the answer that gets you accused of having a basic palette lol. the magnitude man tho. i still send people the shootout move on dehner every couple months unprompted. it's a wellness check.
I respect the Datsyuk picks, I do. The hands were a gift. But you young folks need to understand that before there was the Magic Man there was Steve Yzerman learning to play a 200 foot game in his thirties because Bowman asked him to give up half his offense for the good of the room. He went from a 65 goal scorer to the most complete captain the league had seen. That is my guy. Watching the Captain lift the Cup in 97 with that knee held together by tape and stubbornness is the single best thing I have witnessed in this sport.
zetterberg. that's the post.
@mike_d22 said:zetterberg. that's the post.
Thank you for representing the underrated answer. Henrik Zetterberg in the 2008 Cup run was as dominant a two way forward as I have ever watched, and the fact that he shadowed Crosby into oblivion in that final still doesn't get talked about enough. He never had the flash of Pavel so he gets quietly slotted as the number two, but on a lot of those teams he was the engine. The 36 second shift in Game 4 where he just refused to let the puck out of the offensive zone is my Roman Empire.
all these names and not one of you has said Bob Probert. figures. nobody appreciates a guy who could score 29 and also rearrange your face in the same period anymore.
Probert is a real answer and I won't let anyone laugh at it. The man played the game the way you'd want to if you actually had to drop the gloves with grown men. As a beer leaguer I have a deep and unserious respect for anyone who could do both.
I'm going to go a slightly different direction and say Nicklas Lidstrom, but specifically for the thing that makes him a strange favorite: he never made you feel anything. No drama, no highlight reel desperation, just perfect positioning for two decades. Loving Lidstrom is loving the absence of mistakes, and there's something deeply satisfying about that to me. The Perfect Human. I have never seen anyone be that good at a sport while generating that little chaos.
ok hear me out 🐙 Tomas Holmstrom. greatest net front human to ever live. dude got cross checked into the third row for fifteen years and just kept standing there screening goalies 😤 zero glamour all bruises. my hero fr
HOMER IS A PERFECT ANSWER AND I WILL NOT HEAR OTHERWISE. that man bled for the crease. but mine is DRAPER. the grind line raised me. you want to talk about a guy who you LOVE not who's the best? Kris Draper. every penalty kill, every faceoff, every shift you knew exactly what you were getting and what you were getting was a heart the size of the building.
Great thread. I'll add a name nobody has touched yet: Sergei Fedorov. People forget how genuinely complete he was because the contract drama soured the ending for some folks. A Hart, a Selke, could have played all five positions and did once. If you isolate the hockey from the off ice stuff, peak Fedorov might be the most physically gifted player to ever wear the wheel after Howe.
I've enjoyed reading every one of these, kid. The right answer is whoever made you fall for this team, and there are no wrong ones in here. I'll just say that I'm an old man who got to watch Mr. Hockey himself, and the thing I'd want you younger folks to hold onto is that the wheel has always attracted players who do the unglamorous work. Datsyuk backchecking, Yzerman sacrificing his numbers, Holmstrom eating cross checks. That's the through line. That's us.
kane. the magic still works at any age. that's mine.
everyone's picking the wizards and the captains and i love you all but mine is MALTBY. the grind line, the agitation, the kind of player you hated on every other team and adored on yours. you don't fall for a guy like that because of highlights. you fall for him because he did the dirty work that won games and never once asked for a thank you.