Quote:
Originally Posted by RoughRiderRowdy
On a stanley cup contender backlund is no more than a complementary piece.
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It's clear that there are 2 schools of thought on this point, with not much middle ground.
Backlund is a complimentary piece like Bolland was for the Chicago SC winning teams. ON a SC contender, guy like the old Bolland and Backlund are major forces.
Bolland took all the hard minutes against the other teams best players, allowing guys like Kane to run amuck.
Now Chicago let Bolland go after his 5 year contract because he'd became broken down, and only they seemed to understand that.
That certainly does support the proposition that Calgary needs to be cautious with Backlund if they see any slippage in his health/play. He does play hard minutes.
You remove Backlund from the team, and Monny immediately needs to take much tougher minutes, and there goes the scoring line IMO.
IMO, removing Backlund makes the Flames a much weaker team, and he'll be very hard, if not impossible, to replace.
That shut down center is becoming more and more important to a team advancing far into the playoffs.
Taveras playing for the Flames is pretty farfetched so I doubt that Treliving is making any decisions based on that possibility.
Sure there is always a chance, but it's somewhere between slim, fat and none.