Watching Tampa in the playoffs, I had a flashback to a conversation I had online in '09.
The Red Wings were still at their peak and had a reputation for finding players in late rounds. Jonathan Ericsson just came on the scene and had a nice start to his career, including 8 playoff points that year. This was also the time where I started following the draft a bit closer. Hedman was in the draft and was getting hyped up quite a bit as this big, smooth skating, two way defenseman. My conversation essentially boiled down to "So? he's basically Jonathan Ericsson then?"
I think my main point was to hype up Ericsson rather than belittle Hedman. I believe I even doubled down when Ericsson made an international team over Hedman (2010 Olympics?).
But yeah.... turns out Jonathan Ericsson and Vistor Hedman's careers have played out in slightly different ways.