Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Backlund was drafted at 24th overall. He's actually doing fairly well for his draft position.
I'm not sure how you can conclude he's topped out at 16 goals and 40 points either. He seems to be getting better and better. This year he put up 8 goals in 32 games, which is above a 16 goal pace. That was despite only getting 15 minutes of ice time a night. He clearly has the offensive potential to be a 2nd line centre.
I also think his "softness" is overated. This year he was digging a lot in the corners.
The major knock against Backlund is that he is a late bloomer, which is very common for Swedish forwards. I don't think he'll be an all-star, but at 24 he was a solid pick, and I'm impressed with his development of late.
And let's not forget about Backlund's fight  Not a bruiser, but making great efforts to make his game grittier.
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Just to add to this excellent post: Backlund's development seemed to really pick up the last 2-3 years. Up until then it wasn't even certain he would make the NHL because he hadn't progressed a lot since his draft day. That tells me the Flames development group took a different approach with Backlund (and other players) to turn them into quality NHL players. How great they become once they reach the NHL comes down to their individual talent level.
I'd say that turning a 4th round pick in Brodie into a top 2 defenseman with good offensive abilities speaks to the ability of the Flames group to at least do something right. That isn't always going to happen, but the chances of turning someone below the 2nd round into a
top NHLer in the decade before the last few years was about 1/100 for the Flames. Here are the most recent examples:
David Moss-7th round 2001
Matthew Lombardi-3rd round 2002 (draft re-entry)
Brandon Prust- 3rd round 2004
Adam Pardy?- 6th round 2004
*Keith Aulie?- 4th round 2007 (*didn't show any promise in our system but worked out elsewhere)
Lance Bouma?-3rd round 2008
TJ Brodie-4th round 2008
Joni Ortio?-TBD-6th round 2009
Then you start to see the Flames begin changing their tactics for prospect drafting and development which actually started with Daryl Sutter so he deserves some credit for that. Note in particular the potential for these players to not only make the NHL, but be impact players.
Max Reinhart-3rd round 2010
John Ramage, Bill Arnold TBD-4th round 2010
Michael Ferland TBD-5th round 2010
John Gaudreau TBD-4th round 2011
Laurent Brossoit TBD-6th round 2011
Jon Gillies TBD-3rd round 2012
Of particular interest is Adam Cracknell, who was drafted by the Flames in 2004 in the 9th round, kicked around our system for several years and never showed any potential, and then was picked up by the Blues in 2009. The first season he has a significant increase in offensive totals in the AHL. 2010 he continues his pace and immediately got his first call up to the big club. He continues to develop, and subsequently turned him into a decent depth power winger for the big club. So much so they recently re-signed him to a one year one way deal. Seems like the Flames really fatad up that pick.