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Originally Posted by Psytic
That's a great 1.5 season out of his whole career.
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Also about the only 1.5 seasons he's gotten the linemates and ice time needed to succeed. For the entirety of his career, his #1 5v5 ice time linemate is still Lance Bouma, and we all know how Hartley buried him early on.
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I'm arguing how we are going to keep him. People on this board like backing the truck up for everyone and that's great. But if we ever want to be a contender I'd rather Tre be conservative with his contract offers.
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You don't worry about how you're going to keep probably the best centre on your roster. Backlund of all people is in every way a core player. You make it work for your core players.
There is really no issue.
Also it's a lot more than 1.5 seasons. Yes his recent spike in production helps him, but he still averages 45 points per 82 games over his last 281 NHL GP. That's a huge sample of success, and his success goes
far beyond his point production. 45 points is very much 2C production. It's a solid enough sample to base his next contract around, even if there is some inflation due to his recent production spike, which is anything but a fluke.