Remembering Derian Hatcher's tenure with Detroit

[NomadFromKazoo 42]

Agreed.

I hated the clutching and grabbing, but he was a pro at that. He also affected the other teams by being a sadist. I personally don't like the league allowing either but he was an effective defenseman when he was allowed to grab & attack other players. Skill? Not really. Effective? Yep.

[puckloo39 5,686]

Definitely rode Zubov's coattails in Dallas.[/font]

THAT'S the truth, if ever it was told. Hatcher may not have hard feelings, but I do.

Zubov got little credit for carrying that team many a season. Good call, Eva.

[newfy 695]

THAT'S the truth, if ever it was told. Hatcher may not have hard feelings, but I do.

Zubov got little credit for carrying that team many a season. Good call, Eva.

I dunno about that. Hatcher was one of the best stay at home, shut down defeseman of his era. Did he maybe get too much credit? Perhaps but he also was that teams leader and captain for their championship and scared the hell out of other teams forwards.

Hatcher in his day was a very good defenseman but the new NHL/injury really put his career on a fast downslide

PLus he did stuff like this for his teammates. I bet JR didn't come near Modano for a very long time after this one.

[Superman54 91]

Wow some harsh words for someone who was injured! Yea he didn't play well in the 2004 playoffs, but neither did a lot of our other guys. Let it go!

I was a fan of the signing. It's to bad the lockout and the salary cap made his time in Detroit very brief! I would have like to seen him finish off his career as a Red Wing.

did you pay $600 for that ticket? If we had Franzen, it would've been a different story. Guess I went to the wrong game 6.

[Barrie 900]

did you pay $600 for that ticket? If we had Franzen, it would've been a different story. Guess I went to the wrong game 6.

Yup, that's the risk when we buy tickets... Maybe it would have been a different story too if Yzerman didn't get injured in Game 5.

[eva unit zero 271]

I dunno about that. Hatcher was one of the best stay at home, shut down defeseman of his era. Did he maybe get too much credit? Perhaps but he also was that teams leader and captain for their championship and scared the hell out of other teams forwards.

Zubov at his best was like a Russian Lidstrom., with maybe a little more emphasis on speed. He was more important to Dallas' defensive game than Hatcher was, and the team's best defensive defenseman was neither of the two; it was Richard Matvichuk.

[newfy 695]

Zubov at his best was like a Russian Lidstrom., with maybe a little more emphasis on speed. He was more important to Dallas' defensive game than Hatcher was, and the team's best defensive defenseman was neither of the two; it was Richard Matvichuk.

Zubov wasn't even close to Lidstrom first of all. Lids was/is better offensively and 100 x better defensively. During their championship season Hatcher led his team in TOI/game, was decent had decent numbers with 30 points and was 2 off of the plus minus lead. He was a great, stay at home, mean defenseman. While leading his team in TOI he also had over 100 pims because he was capable of beating guys up and intimidated his opponents just like Pronger does today and after Stevens Hatcher was probably the most intimidating in the league around that time.

Zubov was important to the PP and was the offensive guy for the stars yeah, but Hatch led in short handed time on ice and I don't really think Matvichuk was a better defender then him, you can say that to try and down play Hatcher but youre not fooling anyone. Hatcher was the team leader, the defensive, stay at home bruiser that scared the hell out of his opponents, guy who would fight anyone, and was the lead penalty killer.

I'm not saying Hatcher is better then Zubov. I'm saying first, Zubov doesn't even come close to Lidstrom and second, Hatcher and Zubov were both extremely important to the Stars championship team and both deserve a lot of credit as the top 2 defenders. He deserves more credit then you give him, he didn't just ride on the coattails of Zubov

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Zubov wasn't even close to Lidstrom first of all. Lids was/is better offensively and 100 x better defensively. During their championship season Hatcher led his team in TOI/game, was decent had decent numbers with 30 points and was 2 off of the plus minus lead. He was a great, stay at home, mean defenseman. While leading his team in TOI he also had over 100 pims because he was capable of beating guys up and intimidated his opponents just like Pronger does today and after Stevens Hatcher was probably the most intimidating in the league around that time.

Zubov was important to the PP and was the offensive guy for the stars yeah, but Hatch led in short handed time on ice and I don't really think Matvichuk was a better defender then him, you can say that to try and down play Hatcher but youre not fooling anyone. Hatcher was the team leader, the defensive, stay at home bruiser that scared the hell out of his opponents, guy who would fight anyone, and was the lead penalty killer.

I'm not saying Hatcher is better then Zubov. I'm saying first, Zubov doesn't even come close to Lidstrom and second, Hatcher and Zubov were both extremely important to the Stars championship team and both deserve a lot of credit as the top 2 defenders. He deserves more credit then you give him, he didn't just ride on the coattails of Zubov

I agree.

It's not an accident that he was named captain on a team full of veteran players who were much older than him. Carbonneau, Skrudland, Hull, Modano, Zubov, Keane, Nieuwendyk. These guys could have all been captains and many of them had captained teams before.

Hatcher was a quiet guy, but a feared player and great stay at home defenseman. His teammates seemed to love having him as captain.

Zubov was a liability in his own end, so I don't know why eva would say Hatcher rode his coattails. Once again, it's not all about stats, even though eva would like to make it so.

Edited July 26, 2010 by GMRwings1983

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Hatcher didn't ride s**t for coattails in his prime, sorry. He was damned good.

He was always slow as molasses, but he was still one of the best stay at home defensemen at the time, and quite the good hitter.

As for the ACL injury, it's all going to be speculation from all of us. Nobody here will completely know if he was ready to return from injury, rushed back, or whatever. My best guess is that everybody responds to ACL surgery differently. If you want to use Franzen as a recent example, of course it is probably a safe bet to say Franzen has responded well/better than Hatcher's situation.

I personally had reconstructive surgery on a torn ACL and MCL over 6 years ago tearing my knee up playing pick-up basketball in college. While the knee doesn't prohibit me from doing anything normal or overly strenuous in life now - I run/jog just about every day, sometimes play softball, etc. - my knee will never feel 100% healthy again to where I feel like I can be comfortable in playing anything where contact is more than usual (in my case basketball) or sprinting or whatever. Granted I was no superstar when I played basketball a decent bit in college, but I always felt I could keep up and contribute in games at times with star athletes or people who played in high school/college or whatever. I wouldn't be able to do that anymore now. Even after a jog it's not unusual for me to limp for a few minutes because my bad knee is a bit more worn out than the rest of my body.

So hopefully from these three examples/people you can take that everybody responds to this type of injury differently.

I was thrilled to death to get Hatcher, and even after his injury I still wish the Wings could've kept him if the money situation/cap didn't start taking effect when it did. Hatcher's season here was obviously disappointing/unfortunate, but the disdain for him here often goes way off the deep end because I think a lot of people don't fully realize that most times it is a giant pain in the rear to come back from a torn ACL and that reactions to it vary from person to person.

If you are still looking for the blame game after all this since Hatcher wasn't quite up to snuff, it should go more towards coaching staff/personnel I think instead of Hatcher I think - because of course Hatcher's going to want to play after being out for so long.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

As for the ACL injury, it's all going to be speculation from all of us. Nobody here will completely know if he was ready to return from injury, rushed back, or whatever. My best guess is that everybody responds to ACL surgery differently. If you want to use Franzen as a recent example, of course it is probably a safe bet to say Franzen has responded well/better than Hatcher's situation.

It may have been the way he returned from the injury that made him super slow. I remember the Nashville series in which a Nashville player skated right past him and went high blocker on Manny Legace.

[ilmickeyli 40]

Got to see plenty of Zubov (few seasons that I went to every home game) with the K-Wings before he went to Dallas.