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Originally Posted by fleury

I think it speaks more to working with what he's got. On a championship team with the right depth a guy with Backlund's skillset is a third liner. I personally feel very strongly about that. Your top two centre's have to be able to create space and score. Backlund does that in spurts but is nowhere near top two line material skillset wise. I guess some will point to points, but to me that's shooting above your weight.

You really underestimate how good Backlund is. I don't even look at the points. I look at what he does to support the defense and transition the play up. When he's at his best, that's what he's doing effectively. He's also disrupting the opposition attack in very subtle ways. Every championship team has one or two centreman like Backlund. Darry's Kings team had two Backlund types in Richards and Stoll centering the 2nd and 3rd line.