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Originally Posted by GranteedEV
This is such an irritating concept that people continue to suggest.
Our 2nd line was by far our best line this season.
It was an effective second line in the NHL regardless of whether or not Backlund is a fancy name who puts up big individual point totals.
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Yes, our second line was our best in terms of overall play most games due to the weakness of the first line on the road. However, if the Flames are going to be a contending team like Chicago or Los Angeles was in past seasons, the rough second line of Colborne-Backlund-Frolik is not of a high enough quality to fill those positions. A player can be talented, but still not be good enough for the job necessary.
The Flames second line needs to consist of players like Sharp or Hossa, not Colborne. The main centers were Toews/Ladd (in 09) Kopitar/Richards for the Kings, or Monahan Bennett moving forward. If you want to stand out as a contender, you need top players in top positions. If you don't have that, you're not going to win the Stanley cup. The Penguins just won with Crosby/Malkin/Kessel along with good supporting players. San Jose got there with Pavelski, Thornton, Marleau, Couture and good supporting cast players like Ward. If you don't have at least 3 high end forwards and another group of good supporting players, you won't win. Backlund is a good supporting player, but he isn't a part of the upper end group. He never will be, because his talent level isn't high enough. Does that make him a bad player, no of course not. He is one of the best complimentary players any team could have.
If a trade is available to trade a complimentary player for a high end one though, it is an upgrade, even though you are taking a loss of quality of the complimentary player.
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Your logic is equal to the following:
The Coyotes suck, therefore Oliver Ekman Larsson is not a #1 Defenseman.
The Canadiens suck, therefore PK Subban is not a #1 Defenseman.
The Senators suck, therefore Erik Karlsson is not a #1 Defenseman.
The Oilers suck, therefore Connor McDavid is not an elite talent.
The Canucks suck, therefore Edler-Tanev is a crappy defense pairing that couldn't stop Matt Stajan and Brandon Bollig.
The Blue Jackets suck, therefore Bobrovsky/Korpisalo is a terrible goaltending situation.
The Jets suck, therefore Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler is a terrible 1st line.
The St. Louis Blues scored less goals than the Calgary Flames, therefore the St. Louis Blues are not very good.
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No, my logic does not say that. It would be if I said that Gaudreau and Monahan and Giordano, and Brodie are not good because the Flames sucked. Backlund is not a good enough player to be a second line center on an elite team. If he is, then that team must have 6 really awesome wingers to compensate for the weakness up the middle. That again isn't a slight to Backlund. He is probably the best 3rd line center in the NHL, if he is being used as a 3rd line center. He's also one of the weaker (bottom 15) centers if he's being used on the second line. An elite team needs a top 10 1st line center and a top 10 (31st-40th) second line center at a minimum. Most elite teams though have two top 30 centers. Backlund finished tied for 50th among centers in points. A top 40 center last year had a minimum of 50 points with the 30th ranked on having 55.
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You're one of my favorite posters but sorry, that form of logic is just plain lazy.
Evidence of Backlund being a poor second line center would have to examine only his line's effectiveness as a second line, not the effectiveness of the second line plus three other lines on the team he played on. He can't do anything about the first line's inability to establish and hold the zone on the road, or the third line's inability to do anything ever, or the fourth line's inability to push the tempo and instead resorting to dump-and-change tactics.
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I know what I'm saying sounds like the reason why the Flames are terrible is Mikael Backlund. That is not what I am saying though. The Flames are terrible because they don't have enough good players to allow Backlund to play the role that he should be based on the level of talent he possesses. Ideally the Flames would be set up like this.
Gaudreau-Monahan-low end 1st line player or high end second line player
average 2nd line guy-Bennett-Colborne or similar top 9 winger
average 3rd line defensive minded player-Backlund-Frolik
Ferland-Bouma-Jooris (typical 4th line guys that can hit and score a bit)
Unfortunately, the Flames this season did not get those kind of performances from the supporting cast. That shifted Bennett to be the 2nd line LW, and under performing players up into the top 9. Guys that were all basically AHL caliber performers (Raymond/Stajan/Jones/Ferland/Jooris/Bouma).
Now on to the end of this long post, the main difference between #6 and #3 is that #6, assuming it's one of the wingers, will take one of the two winger spots up on the second line, which is fine unless Nylander over performs and can fill that 1st line RW spot. Unfortunately that will still leave 2 top 9 positions that will need to be filled, including likely a 1st line role. Getting Puljujarvi fills that 1st line role for the long term while opening a hole on the 3rd line (assuming Backlund gets dealt for #3). Jankowski could likely fill that third line hole eventually albeit not likely as proficiently as Backlund. In each case you're looking at 2017-18 as the starting period for each of them entering those roles at the earliest. If the Flames did not have Jankowski, I would be more reticent in dealing Backlund, but we do have an internal potential replacement that is almost ready to play in the NHL.