Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
The goal was not to make him struggle but rather to have him work on other parts of the game that will allow him to be an effective NHLer.
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Do you think that's been accomplished? Watching Backlund play for the Flames it seems he just knows where to be at both ends of the ice and is just an all-around smart hockey player. To me, I don't know if it helped his development any playing with Vandermeer and Cunning or whoever it was he was playing with those first 40 games because you can't really teach a player how to be smart like that, either he gets it or he doesn't.
Maybe I'm wrong and playing him in the bottom 6 really did develop his defensive game but I suspect all it did was hurt his offensive confidence having to play with plugs all the time.