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Originally Posted by Poe969
And I don't get why people are so hung up on Backlund, the guy is good and probably one of the best third line C's in the league
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Because he's, contrary to popular assertion,
not a third line center. He's our second line center
and he's effective as our second line center.
Remember how the Avs made a transition from Ryan O'Rielly and Paul Stastny to Nathan McKinnon and Matt Duchene, and it totally backfired because those two don't have the polish to play the center position at the same level as the other two? The Avs are way worse right now, than they were two years ago. They bought into the hype of youth and gave up on having bridges to help the youth along. That's what people are inviting when they talk about trading away Mikael Backlund. Stajan is not a bridge. Monahan is not there yet.
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if trading him gets you a legit top 6 player with franchise player potential, you take it.
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You're trading, contrary to popular assertion, a legit top 6 center plus a potential top 6 forward, for a legit top 6 winger.
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I think the worse case scenario for Puljujarvi is that he turns into a better Backlund.
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I love Jesse Puljujarvi.
But the question is not about his upside.
It's about "are you willing to go down tank
another year?
Puljujarvi's ceiling isn't even
that much higher than Tkachuk, Dubois, Brown or Keller. It's a high ceiling but the real value-added is that Puljujarvi is more likely to play in the NHL next season, the others will need development time. So you're trading up to Puljujarvi because of impatience. And impatience is fair. Except here's the deal: You want Puljujarvi to contribute ASAP so we are a playoff team. Take off Backlund and we are not a playoff team.
Backlund is the ONLY center we have right now who drives play consistently from the D-zone to O-Zone without getting lost defensively or unable to clear the puck or unable to create separation against traps.
I love Sam Bennett but he's not at that level yet.
Monahan can't skate well enough to play that style.
Jankowski's never played an NHL game.
Puljujarvi and Gaudreau are wingers.
You are basically Oiler-izing the Flames if you trade away Mikael Backlund for a winger prospect. May as well trade Gio for Darnell Nurse while you're at it. After all Nurse can skate really good and he's the next Chris Pronger, hockey fans said so.