Nicklas Lidstrom

Former Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy seven times and is a lock to be selected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT - Jimmy Devellano states with supreme confidence that the Detroit Red Wings' 1989 draft was epic.

"That was the draft of the century," Devellano said. "A fabulous, fabulous draft."

What made the haul extraordinary wasn't the club's first two picks, it was their third- and fourth-round selections - Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov.

Lidstrom, widely regarded as one of the two greatest defensemen in NHL history, is a lock to be selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. Fedorov, one of the game's premier two-way forwards in the 1990s, has a good chance to be named as well.

That draft set up the Red Wings for a run of success that includes four Stanley Cup championships and a playoff streak that has reached 24 seasons.

"That really was the nucleus of building the Red Wings teams that won Stanley Cups in 1997 and '98 and really put the foundation in place," general manager Ken Holland said.

The Red Wings, under former GM Devellano, were pioneers in European scouting in the 1980s. They didn't shy away from selecting Swedes, Russians and Czechs in later rounds, players many teams were unaware of or figured would never come to North America. The Red Wings were aggressive and had the wherewithal to bring them to Detroit.

A hidden gem

Holland, one of the club's amateur scouts, first learned of Lidstrom during the Red Wings' mid-winter scouting meetings in 1989.

"Christer Rockstrom (European scout) and Neil Smith (chief scout) told us they found a player off the beaten path," Holland said. "They were tucking him away and he was going to be our third pick."

The Red Wings were confident no other team was aware of the skinny 18-year-old who was playing for his hometown team, Vasteras, in the Swedish Elite League.

"They (other teams) didn't know who the hell he was," Devellano, the Red Wings senior vice president since 1990, said.

"Not real big, but a smart kid with hockey sense. He was very talented, handled the puck well. A lot of teams passed on him because of his size and strength. I asked (his scouts), 'Do you believe he'll get bigger and stronger?' Christer Rockstrom and Neil Smith said 'Yeah, we believe he can. We need to leave him in Sweden for a couple of years.' They convinced me."

The Red Wings used the 53rd pick on Lidstrom.

"We left him in Sweden. He got bigger and stronger," Devellano said. "He came over and the rest is history."

Iron Curtain no deterrent

The Red Wings were dazzled watching linemates Fedorov and Pavel Bure lead the Soviet Union to the gold medal at the 1989 World Junior Championship in Anchorage, Alaska.

"They were fabulous," Holland said.

But the Red Wings weren't sure if they would come to North America. Management had what Holland described as "philosophical conversations" about whether they should draft them.

Months later, Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman played against Fedorov in the World Championship.

"Jimmy asked Steve, 'Is he as good as you?' " Holland said. "He said, 'Jimmy, he might even be better.' "

That's all the Red Wings needed to hear.

"Jimmy wanted us to draft a top Russian or two and if the (Berlin) Wall came down we wouldn't be left behind," Holland said.

The Red Wings used the 74th pick on Fedorov.

"Our scouts told me he's the best 18-year-old in Russia," Devellano said. "Right away I knew he was a good player, but they said, 'We're not going to be able to get him because there's an Iron Curtain.' I said 'Where would he go (in the draft) if he was North American?' They said he'd be the No. 1 pick. I said, 'We're taking him. We'll find a way to get him out of Russia.' "

They did so a year later when Fedorov, in Seattle for the Goodwill Games, defected and joined the Red Wings.

"Lots of people laughed - 'They wasted a pick. They'll never get him out of Russia,' " Devellano said. "We got him. Our team never looked back."

'The Perfect Human'

Lidstrom did everything right, on and off the ice, during a 20-year career, prompting teammates to label him "The Perfect Human."

He won the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman seven times - only Bobby Orr won more (eight). Lidstrom won his first Norris at age 30 and his last one at age 41.

"In a game with so much flow and momentum, Nick was a calming influence on the ice," former teammate Kris Draper said. "You always knew if we needed a big shift, throwing Nick over the boards settled things down. He had elite vision, hockey sense, made a great first pass. He did everything at an elite level."

Lidstrom ranks sixth all-time among NHL defensemen in points (1,142), fourth on the Red Wings' career list, behind Gordie Howe, Yzerman and Alex Delvecchio.

Incredibly durable, Lidstrom missed only 46 of a possible 1,827 games, regular season and playoffs, during his career - and many of those were late-season games in which he was rested.

Lidstrom became the first European to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2002. He took over the captaincy when Yzerman retired in 2006 and helped the Red Wings win their fourth Cup in 11 seasons in 2008.

"He was a guy that was matched up against every team's top line, probably every game of his career," Draper said. "Every shift he knew he was going to see the other team's top line."

Sergei Fedorov was one of the game's top two-way forwards in the 1990s with the Red Wings.

A most dynamic player

After three strong seasons in Detroit, Fedorov had a breakout year in 1993-94, winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP after racking up 56 goals and 120 points.

"Sergei was one of the most dynamic players I played with," Draper said. "His straightaway speed, agility and lateral movement was amazing. He could beat you with speed or with finesse. He had an outstanding release with his wrist shot."

Fedorov never duplicated his MVP year but had nine more solid seasons in Detroit, finishing with 400 goals and 954 points - fourth and fifth, respectively, on the franchise list.

He wasn't long for Detroit, however. He held out for more than half the season in 1997-98, eventually signing a heavily front-loaded six-year, $38 million offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes, which the Red Wings matched.

In 2003, he signed a five-year, $40 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks after rejecting a five-year, $50 million offer from the Red Wings, alienating many Detroit fans.

His was never the same after leaving Detroit, playing five undistinguished seasons in Anaheim, Columbus and Washington before finishing his career in Russia.

But he still has Hall-of-Fame credentials (483 goals, 1,179 points, one Hart Trophy, two Selke Trophies as the league's top defensive forward and three Cups).

"When he was on he had the ability to dominate a game in all areas," Draper said. "Watching him do the things he could do, he was an unbelievable hockey player."

What might have been

Detroit's 1989 draft would have been even more legendary if not for some inaccurate information supplied by Gil Stein, the NHL's vice president and general counsel at the time. He told the Red Wings Bure wasn't eligible to be drafted when they were poised to select him with the 95th pick, so they took Shawn McCosh instead.

The Red Wings decided to select Bure in the sixth round and worry about the legal ramifications later, but the Vancouver Canucks grabbed him with the 113th pick, three spots ahead of Detroit, which settled for Dallas Drake.

Drake, during his second stint with the Red Wings, was a key role player on their 2008 Cup-winning club.

In the 11th round, with the 221st pick, the Red Wings took another Russian, scrappy defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov. He had six strong seasons in Detroit, finishing second in Norris Trophy voting in 1997, and was destined for a great career before suffering a debilitating head injury in a limousine accident six days after the '97 Cup victory.

"We had Steve Yzerman, and then you add Fedorov, Lidstrom and Konstantinov," Holland said. "We got lucky. A couple years later, Fedorov (in 1990) and Konstantinov (in 1991) jumped to North American and all the sudden you wake up in 1992 and you got great players."

The Red Wings' first pick that year, forward Mike Sillinger (11th overall) played only 129 of his 1,049 games with Detroit but had a decent NHL career, tallying 548 points for a dozen teams.

Their second pick, hard-nosed defenseman Bob Boughner (32nd overall), never played for them but appeared in 630 games in 10 seasons for six teams.

"I've gone over every draft since 1969," Devellano said. "There's no team in the history of hockey that had a better draft than that one. It set us up for 15 years, maybe longer."

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