Quote:
Originally Posted by N-E-B
Some of them, yes. I like Backlund, but I like him a whole lot less at $5.3mil AAV.
This team falls in love with its own players a bit too much if you ask me.
|
On the flip side, this team (by the fans I assume you meant?) is far too hard on a player when they hit a rough patch or a cold stretch. See: any Flame player this year. Hell, we just finished a bunch of fan-proposed trades to ship out Monahan, Gaudreau, Hamilton, Brodie, and Giordano. Do more than 1 of those things and you're talking rebuild and a terrible team.
Quite frankly, I don't put much stock in what happens over a short course of games, I look at the season overall and progress from season to season. If the criticism is "Backlund wasn't as good as last year", then I can agree with that to a certain extent. If the criticism is "Backlund sucks now that he got paid", then I think that's total B.S. and we worry far too much about value of a contract. You can't control what the market allows, and you can't trade away every player the minute they reach a level that allows them to get paid properly, or perhaps a little more than they currently deserve to make up for previous underpayment. That's how it works in the NHL and we have to stop worrying about every single dollar. Provided we aren't slammed up against the cap every year with no room to maneuver, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Is Backlund still a valuable player? You betcha. That's all that matters. We need to put a better supporting cast around our good players, and things should get better at that point.
Oh, and get a new coaching staff. This group is toast.