IMO, overall Lidstrom is a better player than any of those guys. Some of them may have parts of their game that are better than Lidstrom's (ie.Leetch's offensive ability), but Lidstrom has the complete package. He should definitely get some consideration for MVP this year, although Ovechkin...
In recent history only Borque and Coffey were on Lidstrom's level... if you go further back you have guys like Orr, but it's hard to comparedifferent generations of players.
Which other defensemen in the past 20 years are as good as Lidstrom?