Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
I love Backlund except for that damned face-off percentage.
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Backlund has hovered between 47 to 48.5% on the dot the last handful of years. This season, a few centers with a faceoff percentage between 47 and 49% include:
Ryan Getzlaf - 48.7% (#1C on probably the best team in the league)
Brad Richards - 48.7%
Sasha Barkov - 48.6% (I'm sure
you're familiar with him)
Casey Cizikas - 48.0% (center of the so-called best checking line in hockey)
Evgeny Kuznetsov - 47.3%
Logan Couture - 47.3%
Sean Couturier - 47.1% (A player people probably assume must be better than Backlund, because he's taller)
Riley Sheahan - 46.5% (A player people probably assume msut be better than Backlund, because he's taller)
Derek Stepan - 46.4%
Carl Soderberg - 46.4% (A player people probably assume must be better than Backlund, because he's taller)
Calle Jarnkrok - 46.3%
Adam Henrique - 46.1
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - 45.4%
Mark Scheifele - 44.7%
Artem Anisimov - 44.3%
I'm just gonna go off on a limb, and assume fans of these other teams are not losing hairs because of that center's faceoff percentage.
It would be nice if Backlund were better at faceoffs but it's one of the least important things. And if our team can becomes good enough that one of the bigger hole on the team is a faceoff specialist, then you can replace Matt Stajan with Derek Grant and be done with that too. We've got Jankowski, Arnold, and Hamilton also in the system who may become good depth faceoff-takers too.
Additionally, 19-year-old rookie Sam Bennett has a pretty decent FO% of 46.1% (better than fellow 19-year-olds McDavid, Eichel, Reinhart, Larkin) despite not getting much experience on draws over the past two entire years. 21-year-old Monahan has a FO% of 50.3%. As a team two of our other most important centers are still improving on the dot.
And we've traded away the one guy who was hopeless on the dot, Granlund.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I was going to say this - his wingers haven't been horrible. He probably had a smattering of Jones and maybe Colborne as well, but that shouldn't hurt his faceoff %.
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D-men probably influence faceoff percentages as much as wingers, and Wideman, Russell, Engelland haven't been the best puck-retrievers in the world for us.