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Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Thing is, Backlund hasn't played higher than he should in any of those years. Other than being weak at faceoffs, he's been successful in every role he's been put in. +/- isn't a great stat but Backlund was a +4 the year we drafted Bennett and he's a +4 this year as a 2nd line center. He was the one player who wasn't in over his head in his role, and his on-ice role in those years has not been that of the 3C people claim he is. It's easy to look at his counting stats and say "we're not good enough because he doesn't produce" but his line outproduces other team's top 6 lines that they're matched up with. There are guys playing 2C on playoff teams who can "produce offensively" but still barely hold their head above water in given matchups (heck, look at Steven Stamkos the last two years). There are 3Cs who are better power play guys (Ryan Spooner, heck maybe our own Granlund who I don't even consider a 4C) too. But when I think of a term like "2C" I'm not referring to special teams performance.
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Backlund is a good two-way center with limited offensive upside. That's ideally what you want on your third line. If a guy isn't capable of scoring 20 goals, or hitting 40 points despite getting 2nd line minutes, you want that guy pushed down your line up. Center is such an important position that I have high standards of what players should play where. I'm a little less worried about a guy like Frolik, not a 1st line winger, playing on a top line.
Backlund is good in his own end and when matched up defensively against other players. Now imagine him being able to use those defensive tools on a 3rd line matched up against top lines while two other more capable offensive centers are left to do their thing with capable wingers.
Hell, I don't even know what you're arguing. Even if
your trade proposals and
your fantasy lines you didn't have Backlund there, so even you don't think he's a 2nd line guy on this team. You've easily replaced him with Monahan, Bennet or Matthews putting him on the third line so I have no idea what you're on about.
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But anyways I don't want to drag this thread further off topic, this is the draft thread. Let's just agree to disagree. If you still want to respond to the above part copypaste it over to the Backlund thread.
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I'm good, thanks.