Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Totally, and it wasn’t mean to compare the two or suggest Backlund was as good or more worthy than Lanny, just meant to highlight that some suggestions as to how the eligibility should be limited or evaluated would have also, probably, meant Lanny not qualifying either.
For Lanny it was more like, if performance or “elite” on ice qualities is the main metric, there are a bunch of other guys above him (not including Backlund here) who should be there. But they aren’t, and he is, so obviously all that other “stuff” is incredibly important.
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It would be a pretty interesting discussion if the Flames won a cup in the late teens or early 20s with the Gaudreau/Monahan/Tkachuk/veteran core, as Backlund was massively important for those young guys' development, sheltering and mentoring them as they entered the league.
But if they won one then, the makeup of this team would probably be a lot different today which would introduce a pile of other complications (like who else should get retired from that hypothetical cup winning team).
Let's hope they get a couple in the next 15 years and we can debate which of the Stanley cup winning contributors -- Wolf, Parekh, Reschny etc -- deserves their number to be retired.
