Mikael Backlund

[medatswhoP]

I agree with almost all posters, I say keeping Backlund for another couple years to let it ride out is fine, he might not be top goal scorer but he is one of the best we have for penalty killing and yes he does know the game/refs per say to draw penalties when he can.  Bottom line keeping him or not is not a big game changer, he is solid and experienced in the game to support the youngsters growing in the NHL. I think Backlund is a excellent buffer as liaison between coaching and players. (A quiet captain maybe but that's ok).

 

[travel_dude]

On 9/29/2023 at 5:21 AM, conundrumed said:

The closest to a D-first C is Ronni right now. I have faith in Kerins with 2 more years of development. Both will remain centers, just a question of developing to the pace/smarts of the NHL. One of the top 120 hockey centerman in the world isn't exactly an easy nut to crack. Heck, I wish that I was in the top 120 at something, anything, in my own community.

As I age like fine wine with a failing cork, I find it harder and harder to be overly-critical of any 18-30yo that can even come close to the NHL. When Ronni lands here and fans can actually see him on the regular, I think that they'll be very pleasantly surprised. If 3rd assists were a thing, he'd have many. He always seems to be the one getting the play moving out of his end when I saw him in Plymouth. Hopefully he can elevate his icetime with Tappara this year and we can get him here with very good tutors in Lindholm and Backlund. His main attributes are f/os and he's really good at all of defensively, passing and IQ. Not showing in pts is fooling everyone here I think. He led their u20 to a championship last year. Without question, he was their all-situations C. He's the opposite of the pts guy that you have to teach D.

Everyone now spouts about, "you have to create your O from D", so that will be in his sweet spot, the O will come. I'll be sailing the high seas to watch him this year. I quite like how he plays, if you can't tell.lol

We took him as a, "safe pick". He's still really safe.

 

 

So what's the story with Toppi?  I saw that he has stats with U20, but he's not on the Finn roster at WJC.

I think I had read he was back with the team, but can't be sure.

[conundrumed]

Took awhile, but he's recently back in Liiga with Tappara.

Here's his recent history, courtesy of Flashscore: