Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
Points to date
Bergeron: 51 (having an excellent year offensively though. He only had 53 points all of last season)
Toews: 37
Backlund: 34
Offensive zone deployment
Bergeron: 58%
Toews: 58.3%
Backlund: 43.6%
Corsi for %
Bergeron: 56.9%
Toews: 57.8%
Backlund: 55.2%
Corsi for relative to teammates (on vs. off the ice)
Bergeron: 5.4%
Toews: 6.2%
Backlund: 4.7%
An unreal offensive year from Bergeron aside, that all looks relatively comparable to me. Plus, Backlund is buried in the defensive zone compared to the other two, so a slight drop in Corsi numbers compared to them should be expected.
Again, he does the heavy lifting for the team defensively while still putting up good offense. He's an essential piece of this team.
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I agree that he's an essential part of the team.
Towed has 659 regular season points. Bergeron has 722. Backlund has 262. Sorry, one of these are not the same as the others.
I would agree that Backlund could be in the same conversation from a defensive centre perspective, but in no way has Backlund had anywhere near the offensive production that these players have had.
Comparing peak seasons: Backlund 53 points, Toews 76, and Bergeron 73.
The only reason Backlund is on pace this year with Bergeron is because Begeron himself is in that 32 plus age range where offence really starts to drop off, but he's dropping off from consistent 60+ point seasons, whereas Backlund will be dropping off of one 50+ point season.
Look I think Backlund has been excellent for the Flames. And I think all of us will really like the first couple of years of this contract, I just think the term is a couple of years too long.
I fully believe someone else would have paid him this as a Free Agent, but that doesn't automatically mean that it's a great deal and that the Flames should have.