Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
He would not be 2nd line on a really good team and he's a placeholder for Bennett. He's the perfect 3rd line center as he's good defensively and has some offensive skill. If we are lucky he can be another Stephan Yelle.
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Backlund has put up 21 points in the last 30 games playing exclusively with Bouma and Jones. That's a 57 point pace without the benefit of top 6 wingers. Put Backlund with two top 6 wingers and I could easily see him putting up 70 points, which is a legitimate 2nd line centre number.
That being said, the Backlund line is contributing offensively, and Backlund I don't see any other wingers currently on the team that I think would contribute more offensively and still be reliable enough to get the assignment of playing against the other team's top line.
So, you leave it as is.
Also, this isn't the year where you use St. Louis as the measure for whether you shake up the line up. They're a big, deep team that would have the advantage over Calgary no matter how the lines were configured.