Between the start of 2008 and his retirement, Lidström added a quartet (two 1sts/two 2nds) of All-Star Team nods, nailed down another Cup, and garnered two Norrises (even if we acknowledge that one of them was an 'Emeritus/Laureate' sort of Norris). Far from being in "hang-on" mode, he was adding positive items to his résumé as 37-38-39... even 40 year-old.
I don’t think it’s unusual for defensemen in the big money era to be in the best position to add those positive items late in a career.
There’s increased incentive to playing at 37-40. I think Denis Potvin maxed out at $550,000 when he retired at 34-years-old with gasoline in the tank, while Lidstrom was taking $6.2-7.6 million annually at the end of his. Bourque, Chelios, MacInnis, Stevens - they all hit $6-7 million in their late-30s, picking up some All-Star selections.
More than that, the threshold for those All-Star selections wasn’t always the most demanding - no disrespect to players like Boyle, Campbell, Visnovsky, Yandle, but they’re not exactly 2009
non-All-Star Sidney Crosby.
Granted, you’re not seeing all of those 67-GP All-Star defensemen you did before, but the voters are looking for 50+ points on teams with good records, and as much as Detroit has had overhaul, they retained an incredible amount of offensive firepower in this period, ranking 3rd, 1st, 14th, and 2nd in GF in Lidstrom’s four All-Star selections. And not surprisingly, the year they were 14th was the one where he was not only
not nominated for the Norris, but had less than 50% of the 3rd place Norris finisher’s voting share.
Lastly, in the final five seasons of Lidstrom’s career, 16 forwards and 8 goaltenders landed top-5 in Hart voting to Lidstrom’s sole representation for defensemen in 2008.
*sips tea*