[Cali Panthers Fan]

I have to agree that if Backlund is best suited to be a great 3rd line checking center, he's missing 2 (really one if you boil it down) components. Physical play and face-off prowess. Really, it's not his stick holding him back on the dot, it's his ability to outmuscle the other guy now and then. If he were ever able to up his physical play he'd likely be over 50% on the dot, which is an absolute must if you're a checking center going up against the opposition's top lines. Unfortunately, he's a little bit too fragile to be using his body regularly.

Backlund's line did pretty well against the Getzlaf line. That line's best games were against Stajan's line early on. Backlund is one of the better centers at defensive awareness and an active stick. He has a LOT of takeaways. He had 58 takeaways this year, just 1 behind the perennial Selke candidate Pavel Datsyuk. He reminds me of Datsyuk on the defensive side of the game, and if you compare their real-time stats they are shockingly similar. Pavel never outmuscles anyone, but he is always in the right spot and is incredibly difficult to get a puck past. Here's the big difference. Backlund's face-off percentage is 48.3%, Datsyuk is up around 53.6%.

Honestly, if Backlund could be near 51%, he'd be one of the great checking centers in the game.