One more bit of news today, but it's a doozy. According to a story in a Swedish newspaper, top NHL prospect Mikael Backlund has been threatened with dismissal from his Swedish Elite league team if he doesn't perform well at the upcoming WJCs.
Now, Backlund was the star for the Swedes at the WJCs last year and is thought by the Calgary Flames (who picked him in the first round of the 2007 NHL draft) to be very close to NHL-ready, so there's no reason to believe he can't be a dominant player for the Swedes again. He & Oscar Moller should team up to score a lot of points for the Swedes in Ottawa. But the threat is an interesting one, especially with Flames G.M. Darryl Sutter pointing out that there's other places they can find for Backlund to play.
Like, maybe, Kelowna. The Rockets picked Backlund in the 2007 import draft and still own his rights. Wouldn't that be a huge bonus for the Rockets.....they'd have to get rid of one of their two current imports to make room for Backlund but I don't think they'd have a problem parting with Lukas Matejka in order to make room for a 1.5 point per game player like Backlund should be.
Or....the Hitmen have an open import spot, maybe the Flames would like to see Backlund playing under their noses in Calgary. In that case, the Rockets should be able to extort a pretty decent price from the Hitmen for Backlund's rights. Could be interesting.
2 comments:
Interesting trade thought coming from an Everett fan...
Kyle Beach for Backlund (once confirmed Backund comes back).
Kelwona gets a hometown player, we get someone to replace Beach's scoring without the PIMs.
Given the one year difference in the players' ages, this is a really bad trade for Everett to make straight-up.
Backlund will not be in the WHL in 09-10, whereas Beach will be unless he makes the NHL at 19. No way should Everett trade 1.5 seasons of Beach for 0.5 seasons of Backlund. Plus there is the issue of Backlund being an unknown commodity WHL-wise. Maybe he won't be able to adapt quickly to North American hockey and will be a bust in his half-season here. With Beach, you know what you're getting already.
So I'm sure Kelowna would jump all over that trade. But Everett shouldn't even offer it without the Rockets adding something else on their end to protect the Tips in the event Beach returns to the WHL in 09-10.....something which is probably a better than 50/50 proposition given the strength of the Blackhawks right now. They have no need to rush Beach into their lineup next year anymore.
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