Nicklas Lidstrom

Is it too early to start talking Stanley Cup? If you’re like me or most the Red Wings fans I know—it’s never too early. We talk rivalries in the off season, playoffs during pre-season, and certainly the Cup all year round.

I generally refrain from making such drastic statements as the title of this article, but with the way Detroit is currently playing it's hard not to see them making a deep run in the playoffs.

Like most sports, the NHL is working hard to make its All-Star Game more interesting to fans. Like most sports, its efforts have failed.

To be be fair, the NHL is at a major disadvantage. The risk of injuries for football and hockey remove the physical aspect of those games that is part of its fan appeal, including my own.

Nick Lidstrom doesn’t block shots. He doesn’t body check anyone. He’s never thrown an elbow. His next fight will be his first.

The greatest hockey defenseman of his time—or maybe of any time—isn’t supposed to be so mild-mannered. He isn’t supposed to be less physical than a second baseman.

Lidstrom, the Red Wings' all-universe defenseman, is 41 years old. In human years.

For any pair of NHL defensemen, toughness is a mandate. These pairings do it better than any other.

Toughness is a difficult concept to quantify. For these rankings, I considered statistical measures such as fighting, shot blocking, penalty minutes, hitting and ice time in addition to more qualitative factors, like a players’ ability to play through pain or strike fear into the hearts of his opponents.

In the fourth installment of NHL Power Rankings by position, I'm taking a look at the 10 best defenseman in the NHL today.

But first, a few ground rules. In order to qualify as a "defenseman," the player must be listed on NHL.com's 2010-11 regular season statistics page as a D and have played a minimum of one full NHL season (80-plus career NHL games). 

Every September die-hard hockey fans look forward to drafting season for fantasy hockey. We get so excited to stack our teams and then we realize that after the first round almost every player you imagined would be on your team is gone.

So here it is, the Ultimate (Or should it be called impossible?) Fantasy team, line by line. Most of the entries will be obvious until we get a bit deeper, but hey, we can still have fun with this can't we?

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The concept of this year's Red Wings sweeping the Coyotes goes unmeasured when compared to their championship teams of years past.  This is only the first round matchup of the playoffs to end in a sweep. 

The Detroit Red Wings entered these playoffs looking shaky.  At one point in the season, they were right behind Vancouver in the race for the top seed.  They then finished the season by losing 10 of their final 23 games.  That record not only kept them from that top spot, but it also allowed San Jose to overtake them for the second seed.

Boston Bruins defenseman and captain Zdeno Chara was named a finalist for the 2011 Norris Memorial Trophy, an award given annually to the NHL’s best defenseman. 

The Detroit Red Wings are the closest thing to a dynasty that this hockey era will see.  The Red Wings continue to put together a competitive team that is always a threat to win the Stanley Cup despite never having great or even a good drafting position. 

Detroit is waiting to see whom they will play in the second round of the 2011 NHL Playoffs so while we wait let's look at 10 bold predictions for their offseason.