A few Calgary Flames notes on yet another off-day:
1) Mikael Backlund has been perhaps Calgary's most consistent two-way player this season yet he continues to get little recognition league-wide.
Obviously, that hurts any case he could be putting together for the Selke, but that doesn't mean he's not playing well enough to deserve consideration.
Despite routinely playing big minutes against opposing team's top players, the Flames control a larger percentage of the shot attempts, scoring chances and goals with him on the ice than without him.
For fun, let's look at a few players putting up comparable numbers while playing a similar role to Backlund.
As you can see, Backlund lags behind a little bit in Corsi For% Relative to the team, however, he has the lot beat in terms of a) point production and; b) Goals For% Relative to the team. Some would say Backlund's totals are the best of the bunch but, if not anything else, we can all agree Backlund is at least holding his own compared to these players.
Said players happen to be routine Selke finalists/winners Patrice Bergeron (Player B), Jonathan Toews (Player C) and Anze Kopitar (Player D).
That we're almost halfway through the season and Backlund is posting similar numbers, if not better, in several key categories is one of the main reasons Calgary currently holds down a playoff spot. He is playing great hockey and it's about time he starts getting credit for it.
2) Kris Versteeg makes $950,000 and has 17 points in 27 games, which averages out to be more than 50 points over an 82-game schedule. Versteeg won't play that many games, obviously, but it puts into perspective how productive of a season he is having. I loved the signing at the time, but it may be working out even better than I expected.
3) Speaking of Versteeg, his play is putting himself in the keeper conversation for the expansion draft. The only problem with that is the Flames would have to expose Micheal Ferland to keep Versteeg. I think Las Vegas is going to take whichever one is exposed because they're not going to select Jyrki Jokipakka, Deryk Engelland, and I doubt they'd grab one of the goaltenders (there will be better options available), so it's a tough decision to make.
As well as Versteeg has played, do you want to lose a 24-year-old who drives possession, and dominates games physically, for nothing? The picture will be clearer down the road, but I'm curious where you all currently stand on this.