Quote:
Originally Posted by gunnner
I hate this thread. Sam is 21 years old. A 23 year old Backlund put up a monstrous 4 goals and 7 asssists in 41 games. A 21 year old Backlund would have been traded for Brandon Sutter if this over reacting board had its way. Chillllll.....
|
When Backlund had his 11-point season (as a 22-year old, according to hockey-reference), he was still far and away our best centre prospect. That year, the following centres played games for the Calgary Flames.
Blair Jones
Matt Stajan
Brendan Morrison
Roman Horak
Paul Byron
Mikael Backlund
Mike Cammalleri (who was never a centre for us)
That's appalling. That's 2017-18 Montreal Canadiens bad centre depth. Of course there was no motivation to a) trade the only halfway decent natural centre in the organization or b) move him to the wing.
Now, the Flames #1C is a guy who, to this point, has outscored his entire draft class. Backlund is a 50-point threat fringe Selke candidate who anchors one of the best possession lines in all of hockey. Our captain is in the 2nd year of a 6-year contract, and he's 33. Our goalie is 35. We have traded two 1st round picks in the last three years for NHL ready defensemen. We have a 23-year old, 6 ft 4 210 lb centre ripping the AHL apart after spending four years learning to play nothing but defense in college. And last month we signed Jaromir Jagr.
Sam Bennett is a dynamite player. I don't think anyone could credibly argue he isn't. He's not a great centre, at least not right now. And right now, the Flames don't have a ton of time for him to figure it out.
Give him another 10 games. I get why they want this to work. When it doesn't, put him with Monahan and Gaudreau.