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St. Louis Blues Should Move David Backes To Wing

By Kate Cimini |

We’ve talked a little in this offseason about bad lines and bad 3-on-3 combos, but we haven’t yet discussed actual line changes that would produce positive things. And while David Backes has spent close to the past decade of his career at center, we want to see what he can do for the St. Louis Blues at right wing.

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Jeremy Rutherford, beat writer for the Blues at the Post-Dispatch, answered a question on the topic during his offseason Blues chat Thursday:

JR, Does Backes prefer to play Center or Wing? It doesn’t make sense for Hitch to have played Backes at Center when he had Stastny available. – AxeburgerBackes has never come out and said, but I’ve always believed he’d like to go back to full-time duty at right wing. We all know the circumstances that dictated Stastny’s season last year: shoulder injury, hard to climb up in the lineup because of Lehtera-Tarasenko chemistry. As much as I’d like to see Backes at RW, I don’t think you could have done that last year even if you moved Stastny up the lineup. You would have had Backes, Oshie, Tarasenko, etc., on the right side. You would have have had an imbalance, not to mention a big hole in the middle. – jrutherford

While Rutherford’s answer ended up focusing on Stastny’s abilities last season, it brings up an intriguing possibility that simply hasn’t materialized: Stastny at center, Backes on the wing.

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As much as we enjoy Backes’ play, and as hard as he works, he’s not the best answer to the 1C position. And if he were to prefer the wing, that would simplify things enormously.

The Blues acquired Stastny, ostensibly as someone they wanted to take the 1C position. But as Rutherford mentions, injuries and certain pairings that Hitch wouldn’t mess with come hell or high water meant that the 1C and 2C positions were strictly off-limits for him.

We know he spoke with the coaching staff at the end of the season about what he could do to reach the top-six, and with the sale of Oshie to the Capitals, the right wing may very well be open on the first line. A simple solution is to slot Stastny in for Backes and slide Backes over to RW.

Backes steps in on the wing a few times a season, and each time, he plays as if it’s where he’s meant to be. There’s no fumbling, falling out of position or trying to remember where the wing is supposed to be at any given moment; the position fits him well, and he brings physicality to the role that doesn’t normally exist on the first line in this day and age.

It’s a lineup that, at the very least, is worth a try. While Steen-Backes-Oshie was the first on the ice for the 2014-2015 season, Steen-Stastny-Backes may be the best bet in the upcoming months. We are no longer tremendously stacked at right wing, nor are we poor (nor have we been poor) at center. If Stastny comes back to training camp in top condition and hungry for an increased role, we’ll likely see him given a chance to crack the top six.

This might mean Robby Fabbri spends another year in Junior, but more time for development can only be a positive in his case.

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