He's a guy where, if he didn't have an impressive playoff resume, he'd still have a chance but be more borderline. But with his strong playoffs, there's just no doubt about it.
Bäckström doesn't have a particularly impressive or strong playoff resume, for a player of supposed HHOF stature or status. He's been good overall and very good in flashes, in the playoffs, but I personally think his playoffs are a bit overrated overall, at least if your assertion here is the more general one. It looks pretty good on paper overall, statistically, but if you scratch a bit on the surface he comes across a bit Turgeon-ish to me.
There was a stretch between the 2010–11 season and the 2014–15 season, for instance, where the Capitals made the playoffs 4 times and Bäckström had 21 points in 43 games, with his team never battling it through the 2nd round of the playoffs. He's also never had a single playoffs that really wowed me. He's had instances of impressive play in the playoffs, but never a prolonged stretch where you would say "oh, look at this guy, he's taking the bull by its horns and is just plowing it out for his team, he's just styling on everyone out there!".
Now, this is not a bashing attempt at Bäckström, the player, I really like his puck dishing skills for instance. It's hyper apparent to anyone with just basic talent evaluation skills to notice the guy's really good at dishing pucks. I knew this already when he played with Brynäs, so no-one has to tell me the guy has talent. That's why I'll never jump on the "muh he's played with Ovechkin" train either, especially not since Ovechkin himself made such an apparent switch in his game from a dynamic youthful all-round offensive force between 2007–2010 to a more simplistic designated sniper type of guy from 2011 and onwards. That particular Bäckström–Ovechkin on-ice relationship feels more symbiotic, to me, honestly.
In some sense I feel Bäckström got caught a bit in a Sancho Panza role to Ovechkin's Don Quixote.
I actually remember watching the Capitals once in the playoffs, or a glimpse of it at least, and it was Bäckström firing a scorching bullet of a shot past the Canadiens goalie for what, I think, was the GWG. And I remember thinking "what the hell, this guy should shoot the puck more, that was fire!". But he never really did, on a more continuous or prolonged basis.
I think he's just been too comfortable with taking the backseat role to Ovechkin over the years, in general, Bäckström. They could have made that offense a little more versatile, in my opinion, and it probably would have worked out a little better for them team wise, in the playoffs.
Someone mentioned Mats Sundin up thread, and I would take Sundin over Bäckström if I built a team 9 times out of 10. Sundin was just a guy where you felt he always wanted to be "the guy" on his team, at least in Toronto after he left Quebec. On Toronto and with Team Sweden Sundin was always that guy. Even when Forsberg was styling on Team Sweden and firing on all cylinders, you always felt it was Mats' team because Mats could do everything out there, and did do everything out there. If Ovechkin and Sundin played on the same team I have a very hard time imagining Sundin would take a Sancho Panza role, he just wasn't that guy.
And when I said Bäckström never had a single playoffs that really wowed me, Evgeny Kuznetsov had. How Kuznetsov brought another dimension to that team in 2018 with his skating and his zone-entering skills, and his puck dishing skills at high speed, and all that, that was a real eye-opener. Unfortunately for the Caps though Kuznetsov seems to be somewhat of a head case.
