Quote:
Originally Posted by fleury
re: Backlund, because the quote button isn't working, if you look at the championship calibre teams, where would he fit in with Boston, Toronto, Colorado, Tampa, Las Vegas, etc? I do think offensively last year he punched above his weight, but skillset wise, he's not up there IMO.
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First off, there's only two teams in your list who have won a championship recently. Backlund has won more playoff rounds than the Leafs have.
I take Bergeron over Backlund for sure. In his prime, Krejci yes over Backlund, right now, I take Backlund.
Toronto, Matthews obviously, Tavares puts up points but in recent years, his playoff production (.66/ppg) is only marginally better than Backlunds (.60/ppg) and one player gets a ton of prime powerplay time and the other only gets scraps on the PP and gets burdened with a ton of PK time.
Colorado, Mackinnion obviously. I probably take Kadri over Backlund because I like his grit more, but Backlund has received more Selke votes than Kadri and in a playoff series, I don't think I lose much with Backlund going head to head with Kadri.
Lightning, yea Backs would probably 4th line centre there.
Vegas, honestly, I couldn't even tell you who their number 1 centre is. In a playoff series, I have no problem running Backlund up against Marchessault, Stephenson, Karlsson or Glass.