For the better part of the last decade, Mikael Backlund has been one of the most important players for the Calgary Flames. He’s first over the boards in virtually every game situation, and he’s routinely matched up against the top players on opposing National Hockey League teams.
Well, on Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks, Backlund left the game midway through the first period and did not return. Backlund’s departure has the Flames facing the possibility of navigating a playoff chase – or the next little bit of it, at least – without their most reliable two-way forward.
So… what should the Flames do at centre if Backlund misses some time?
Since Morgan Frost’s debut with the Flames on Feb. 1, the Flames have rolled pretty consistently with four centres: Nazem Kadri (20:15 average ice time), Backlund (17:05), Frost (16:19) and Kevin Rooney (9:33). Kadri and Frost have skewed towards offensive zone starts, Backlund and Rooney towards defensive zone starts. Kadri and Frost man the power play, while Backlund and Rooney get penalty kill duty.
The Flames used wingers Connor Zary, Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil as centres from time to time this season before Frost’s arrival. All due respect to those gentlemen, but all three were moved back to the wing after their stints at centre, and the Flames likely prioritized acquiring Frost from the Flyers because he’s a natural centre rather than a winger trying their best. All three wingers are probably at their most effective on the wing, and moving any of them to centre might not be the ideal choice because some of their strengths may be negated in the move.
So how about calling someone up from the Wranglers? At present, there are three healthy centres on NHL contracts with the Wranglers: Sam Morton, Rory Kerins and Clark Bishop. Morton is a first-year pro who’s still learning the AHL game, Kerins is offensively talented but a work in progress defensively, and Bishop is a reliable depth option best used on the fourth line.
So what options do the Flames have if Backlund isn’t available?
- Move a winger to Backlund’s spot: The other three incumbent centres stay in their usual roles, but one of Zary, Sharangovich or Pospisil become centres again for a bit. (Zary may be the best option here, but his suspension complicates things right now.) The problem is an inexperienced centre probably isn’t ideally-suited to be the “tough minutes” centre, so Frost’s line would likely get leaned a bit more for those types of minutes.
- Move Rooney up to Backlund’s spot and call up someone for the fourth line: In this scenario, “someone” would probably be Morton or Bishop. On one hand, Rooney is used to tough minutes on the fourth line, and so it wouldn’t be a new thing to lean on him a bit more. However, Morton has no NHL experience, Bishop has just 53 NHL games, and Rooney has struggled on the fourth line at times. He’s been much better lately, but his body of work this season has been a mixed bag and throwing him into Backlund’s role would be a stretch.
- Keep Rooney in his spot and call up someone for the third line: In this scenario, “someone” would probably be Kerins. If you’re hesitant to put an NHL winger at centre or to use Rooney as third line centre, this scenario has the Flames bringing Kerins into the NHL to play with Coleman and Farabee. Kerins isn’t exactly a Selke Trophy contender, but he’s been a really effective AHLer because he’s played with a rotation of pretty reliable two-way wingers with the Wranglers. As with the “Winger” scenario, though, Frost’s line would need to get more of the tough assignments given Kerins’ inexperience.
We’ll be blunt here: there are no “perfect” scenarios. While Backlund isn’t quite what he was a year or two ago, he’s a really useful centre that eats up a lot of ice time in key situations. Backlund does a lot, so he leaves a big hole when he’s not available. Hopefully he doesn’t miss much, if any, time, because the Flames already don’t have a ton of centre depth, and it’ll be tested if he’s absent.
Who do you want to see step into Backlund’s role and ice time if he misses time? Let us know in the comments!
