-Larsson played 21 minutes per game and scored 18 pts in 65 games during his rookie campaign.
-Hedman played 21 minutes per game and scored 20 in 74 games during his rookie season.
Nothing to add
Yeah especially because the first year was never in the discussion to begin with. Let's just say their rookie season was quite close but I don't see the point here.
-Hedman, in his 2nd season, played for the 7th best offense in the league, 2.94 G/G and a 103 pts stacked with talent, Eastern Conference Finalist team.
-Devils are 28th offense in the NHL with 2.33 G/G
That's makes a difference of 2 more goals scored every 3 games for Tampa. Tampa never had to face in 2010-2011 a 8 defence-man controversy neither. Fayne, Tallinder, Volchenkov that was a complete confidence-breaker for all the dmen sitting. And no one certainly can blame a 20 years old dman to have trouble in such a context.
-Despite 8 dmen, Larsson still played 35 games so far this season but for a career total of 100 games.
-Hedman played 79 games in his 2nd season for a total of 153 games after 2 seasons.
Significant difference. that makes a 1/3 of more games for Hedman. Yeah Larsson's 2nd year is not even a legit 82 games season. Quite unfair.
So basically you are saying that Hedman played more in a better team. Thank you for adding to my point.
-Brewer, Öhlund, Lundin and Jones: 4 dmen were averaging more PK time/game than Hedman. Only Purcell and Kubina had more PP time than Hedman. Hedman was getting 50% offensive zone starts in his 2nd season.
How is that a key assignement ?
Hedman still played more than Larsson both in total ice-time and PK time. That is the point. And if you you really watched the Lightning at that time you'd know the answer to your own question as Hedman was a key player in the Tampa defense that year. I can hardly say the same about Larsson.
That's in his 3rd season that Hedman really started to be impressive, when he became Tampa's real shutdown #1 dman, still producing offensively and also taking A LOT of defensive zone starts. Larsson will have a tough time to match this kind of performance next year.
Not really. Hedman was a monster in the 2012 playoffs so we could say his breakout went at this time. The following year was more the confirmation than anything.
Look, I don't want to talk about this all night. The bottom line is simple, Hedman was an absolute regular on the 7th team in the league, playing 21 minutes a game and 2 minutes of PK a game, producing 26 points in the process. He was the second most used player in the team already while Larsson was barely regular in a team that failed to qualify in the playoffs. You REALLY don't see the difference here ?
And while I ask you some question, I'll add another. Don't you see the absurdity of this comparaison ? I mean, there is absolutly no common points between Hedman and Larsson in their style of game. Not saying this against you, but just because they were two swedish top-picks doesn't mean we absolutly have to compare them, really. Let's just support Larsson and hope for him to become the good defensman we need him to become instead of putting follish comparaisons just for the sake of it.
