A Flame from the Past: Toni Lydman

Do you remember Toni Lydman?

Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 2000-01 season.

In the fourth round of the 1996 draft, the Flames selected left-shot defenceman Toni Lydman. He spent five seasons in Finland, the last four seasons in the SM-Liiga, where he scored 18 goals and 57 points in 224 games, before coming to North America to begin the 2000-01 season.

In his rookie year, he scored three goals and 19 points in 62 games and was a -7 as the Flames missed the postseason. His sophomore season saw improvement, as he scored six goals (tied for a career-high) and 28 points, a career-high, in 79 games, missing the postseason once again. In 2002-03, Lydman once again scored six goals and finished with 26 points in 81 games as the Flames missed the postseason for the second consecutive season.

Lydman’s final season in a Flames uniform was in 2003-04, where he scored four goals and 20 points in 67 games, but had a positive plus/minus for the first time in his career, finishing with a +6. 

Moreover, the Flames broke their lengthy playoff drought and had a Cinderella Run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, where the puck definitely crossed the line. Unfortunately, the play was never reviewed and the Flames lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lydman played in six post-season games due to injury but returned for the final three games of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The 2004-05 National Hockey League season was wiped out due to a lockout, with Lydman heading back to Finland to play for HIFK for the season. He only played for eight games and was traded before the start of the 2005-06 season to the Buffalo Sabres for a third-round pick in the 2006 draft.

With the Sabres in 2005-06, Lydman scored a goal and 17 points in 75 games, helping the team reach the Eastern Conference Finals where they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Carolina Hurricanes. The following season, he scored two goals and 19 points in 67 games, with the Sabres eventually falling to the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals.