Christian Backman or Paul Martin

[Luke154]

These are 2 guys Ive been looking at for my hockey pool to put on my reserve for maybe this year and next year I was just wondering about both of there upsides and point potential and how will they do the rest of this year ......will they play the rest of the season.

Which would you prefer?

thanks in advance

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[degroat*]

I don't know anything about Paul Martin, so I can't tell you who I'd prefer.

What I can tell you is that Backman has come out of nowhere this year and has finally began to develop into the player that everyone expected.

That said, it's hard to predict how much value he'll provide to your team this year. Just a quick look at tonight's box score shows he played about 16 and a half minutes and his ~4 minutes were only topped by Pronger on D. He'll probably be on the 2nd pairing for the rest of the season, unfortunately he's been paired with Khavanov, so his plus-minus will take a hit.

This season, the most I'd see him ending up with is 25-30 points. I'd keep an eye on his PP minutes over the next couple weeks if you're interested in picking him up.

Career-wise... he'll probably top off as a 3 or 4 that gets good PP time.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Trying to be as unbiast as possible but I only see Backman being a #4 or #5 defensmen on an average team where Martin has the potential to be a top pair guy, he really needs to add alot of weight.

 

[degroat*]

Backman is already a 4 or 5 on a good team.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

St Louis's defense without Jackman and MacInnis is hardly good.

 

[degroat*]

You said average 'team' not average 'defense'. :p

Seriously though... Backman has played better than every dman on the Blues' roster not named Pronger or Jackman (and I guess MacInnis also, but he only played 2 games).

So...

1. Pronger
2. Jackman
3. Backman
4. Salvador
5. Baron
6. Khavanov

It's far from great.. but I'd qualify it as 'good' just based on the fact that Pronger is going to take 25%+ of the minutes himself.

Even with MacInnis he's the #4.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

OK, I get your point BTW how old is he?

 

[degroat*]

He'll be 24 in April.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

OK, Martin will be 23 in March so age is no difference in the skeem of a career.

 

[canucksfan]

Paul Martin

 

[degroat*]

OK, Martin will be 23 in March so age is no difference in the skeem of a career.

Nope... not really.

BTW... have you heard how well Danton is playing in St. Louis? He scored two last night and has about 10 pts in 40 games. He's such an improvement over Nash.

 

[PEli*]

Nope... not really.

BTW... have you heard how well Danton is playing in St. Louis? He scored two last night and has about 10 pts in 40 games. He's such an improvement over Nash.

We knew the kid could put up a few points. Trust me. He'll eventually piss somebody important off though. Just give him time and he'll do what he does best.

I keep waiting for the "Mediocre Forward Sleeps with Pleau's Daughter" headlines.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Danton was one of my favorite players and I seen he had a 3 point night vs Chicago, I only hope the best of him in the future, I wouldn't mind his help at center right about now. He is with Cajanek and ? I was watching him on sportsnet vs Habs.....Osgood.....errrr lol

 

[Thomas]

I was very impressed by Backman's play tonight in the St-Louis vs Montreal game. I had never heard of him before tonights game, but he played a very solid game for such a depleted d corps at the moment. He can carry the puck and isnt no slouch in the defensive zone, I can see him being a pretty good defenseman for the blues in the near future. I havent seen Martin play yet this season, so I cant really compare both based on what I've seen, but nonetheless, I was very impressed by Backman tonight.

 

[Mike8]

Martin with some ease.

I like Backman a lot, but Martin's impressed me this season.