Nicklas Backstrom has been, is and I guess always will be an underrated superstar. It’s a shame that a player that has been as great as Backstrom won’t get his full due in terms of respect among hockey fans but for some reason that’s just the way things go sometimes.
Backstrom is one of the absolute best Swedish hockey players we have ever seen. All of the other names get the credit they deserve. Mats Sundin, Nicklas Lidstrom, Daniel Aldredsson, the Sedin’s, Henrik Zetterberg, Peter Forsberg, etc. You can and should put Henrik Lundqvist on that list as well even though we are talking about skaters here.
There is no denying it anymore. Backstrom is just as good if not better than some of the names that get more credit than he does. If he isn’t already better than some, if not all of them, the numbers will soon prove that he may be.
Backstrom just hit the 1,000 point mark for his career. Out of all the Swedish players to ever play in the best hockey league in the world he is only the sixth guy from that great country to reach that mark. Sundin, Alfredsson, Lidstrom and the Sedin’s the only others to hit the 1k milestone.
When you look at this list there is no reason to believe that Backstrom won’t end up as the second highest scoring Swede ever, if not the absolute best ever.
Backstrom currently has 1,006 career points. He is just 35 points behind Daniel Sedin which would make him the fifth highest scoring Swede of all time. He is just 64 points behind Daniel’s brother Henrik for fourth all time. Looking at Backstrom’s numbers by season you would think that if he can stay healthy that at the end of next season he would pass Henrik Sedin for fourth all time in Swedish scoring.
Next up on that list would be possibly the greatest defenseman ever in Nicklas Lidstrom. He finished with 1,142 career points. Backstrom is currently 136 points behind him. That means it will likely take him a couple of season to catch the Red Wing great. Backstrom still has several seasons left in the tank, it is only a matter of time before he catches Lidstrom.
Next up would be Daniel Alfredsson and it wouldn’t take long to catch him either. After he passes Lidstrom he would be just fourteen points behind Alfie, the long time Ottawa Senator finished his career with 1,157 points. With Backstrom having plenty of road still ahead of him I would say it’s likely he passes Alfredsson as well.
That would be that he would sit second all time in Swedish scoring. The only person left to catch would be Mats Sundin which could be a challenge. Sundin finished his career with 1,349 points. Does Backstrom have 349 points left in him at age 34?
Thirty-four isn’t the oldest age ever for a hockey player. But the decline is coming whether he or we like it or not. I would say you can maybe already see that decline this season. After a nasty hip injury at the end of last season forced him to miss a large chunk of this year he looks a lot slower to me.
Thankfully for Backstrom he has smarts to spare. I always tend to compare Backstrom with a guy like Joe Pavelski. Neither guy is that fast, Pavelski has never been the fastest skater, but here we are. Pavelski at age thirty-seven currently has 24 goals and 66 points in 64 games this season. Talent will get you a long way, smarts will get you even farther. Both Backstrom and Pavelski rely on their sense and smarts.
How long can Backstrom go on? I have no idea. Lets just say he finishes his current contract which expires after the 2024/25 season. That would mean he is done at age thirty-seven.
If he is able to stay healthy and put up a few fifty and sixty point seasons he will easily climb up to second all time in Swedish scoring. If you give him three more seasons where he scored fifty points in all of those seasons that means you give him 150 more points which, right now, would put him at 1,156 points. He would be one point behind Alfredsson for second place. I haven’t even counted what he could get to finish this current season. This season of course having fifteen games left. I’m going to go on a limb and say he can get at least two points this season.
In my opinion, Backstrom simply does not get the credit he deserves. At some point people will look up the best Swedish hockey players of all time and see Nicklas Backstrom’s name right at the top of the highest scoring Swedes of all time.
Can he catch Mats Sundin? That is starting to look unlikely. But settling for the second best ever, I think that would be a pretty great career. It looks like that is where Backstrom will be. The second highest scoring Swede ever.