Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameZilla
Backlund right now is, at worst, as bad as Stajan.
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Going to heavily disagree with that. As far as I'm concerned Stajan is miles ahead of Backlund today. I've got very little doubt in my mind that if they both were 29 playing the way they were it wouldn't be a question at all who was the better player. I'm not suggesting Backlund can't get better in 5 years, far from it, but based on play today Stajan is better.
Stajan was a goat. Bad trade, bad play, bad contract. Everything together made fans sour heavily on him. When he played great last season he wasn't given his due by a lot of people who were judging him on previous play (it happens all the time in sports, it's probably even a fair way of doing things). But his play over the last year now has easily been true top 9 quality.
Backlund was the hope. High draft pick, high expectations, no center depth. We've all wanted Backlund to succeed, every year it's "this is the year" every year it doesn't end up being it. He's going to be 25, it's getting close to that time when it's his play that we judge, not potential. And his play this year hasn't been top 9 quality.
Whether Stajan stays or not, Backlund's play hasn't warrant top 9 minutes. When he's gotten them he's been given them by default, and that may or may not happen again next year. Nothing about Backlund's treatment has been unfair. The center depth at the start of pre-season was Stajan and Backlund. Cammalleri was probably going to have to play it again because they had no one else to but there was literally not a better team for Backlund to play for if he wanted ice-time. And yet all it took was an 18 year old rookie and a player acquired for a 4th round pick to bump Backlund down to the fourth line.