I don't break it down that way. He's the third best center in the division, behind the two in Pittsburgh. At any given moment, either of those guys could be centering the line with the most ice time (or either of them could be injured).
So he's better than every other teams 1st line center, other than the Pittsburgh pair. I disagree, a lot.
Backstrom spent half of one of those seasons on IR because of Rene Bourque's cheap shot. Tavares is also the focal point of your offense, like Ovechkin is the focal point of Washington's.
True, he missed half a season.... so to put it another way, John Tavares scored more goals in 48 games, than Backstrom did in his last 90+. Or we could just say that JT has more career goals than Backstrom in about 125 less games, that would also be true. Should we compare Moulson, Parenteau and Boyes to Ovechkin and Semin?
Speaking of Semin...
A lockout shortened season with an elite playmaking winger in Alex Semin was the first time he's been able to break a point/game since 2008. He's a 70 pt/season guy over most of his career. Certainly not bad, but this division is stacked with elite centers. He's also, by far, the worst defensive center in this discussion.
Wasn't Semin also a long time linemate of Ovy/Backstrom?
One of those seasons Nicky lost 40 games to Rene Bourque's elbow, as covered earlier and the other was Backstrom's only "bad" season of his career (still scored 65 points). They're the same age and were taken in the same draft, yet Backstrom has 124 more career points already and a higher point/game in his career.
Backstrom's game is heavily dependent on his linemates production, this is all I'm saying. The fact that his point totals are heavily dependent on assists is enough proof for me. You look at his best seasons, and they directly correspond to the years that Ovechkin was widely considered one of the top two players in the world, and Semin who was no slouch, were his line mates.
Great players make those around them better, Backstrom had two on his line. This isn't to take away from how good Nicklas is/was, I just don't have him higher than Giroux/Tavares/Staal. None of which have any players on the same level as Semin, let alone Ovechkin.... and none that are anywhere near as dependent on the assist to pad point totals.
Edit: Of course, except Staal who has Semin this season.
I have Nicklas high on the list of centers, he just happens to play in a division with a lot of really good ones.
March 14 (actually 13th at practice). Backstrom had 21 points in 25 games before that. That's still pretty darn good. There was only a slight bump in Backstrom's numbers after he was re-united with Ovechkin, but Ovechkin took off.
So who benefited more? Is Ovy a product of Backstrom, or vice versa? I'd think if you polled 100 people in hockey, and asked them to list the best players in the game.... no one would have Backstrom over Ovechkin, and he likely wouldn't even be close on the list.
Prior to March 14, only 3 of Backstrom's 18 assists came on Ovechkin goals. He assisted twice as many Troy Brouwer goals during that span.
I'll take your word for it, because I don't feel like going game to game and checking. But, if that's the case.... why didn't Troy Brouwer fall off a cliff after 3/14? His production actually increased ever so slightly.
