Watch Backstrom enough and, eventually, every part of the mosaic begins to sparkle. See him nightly and those deceptive first steps, the way he’ll pass the puck then quickly tie up an opponent’s stick, or the way he routinely emerges from the corner with what he came for, become things that cannot be missed. But many people aren’t watching the Capitals regularly, and absorbing all that nuance can require a trained eye or, at the very least, one that isn’t fixated on Backstrom’s supernova of a linemate.

Now in his ninth NHL campaign, the 28-year-old has always remained squarely in the conversation for most underappreciated player in the league. The past couple of seasons have seen significant change in Washington, and the new guys—upon seeing Backstrom up close—marvel at what he brings. “I knew he was good. I had no idea he was that good,” says Barry Trotz, now in his second year behind the Capitals bench. “His hockey IQ is off the charts. His ability to handle both sides of the puck correctly and effectively is the best I’ve ever had. I’ve had a lot of good players, but he’s the best at that complete package.”

Before an off-season trade brought him to D.C. in the summer, T.J. Oshie played on St. Louis Blues teams that perennially landed at or near the top of the NHL standings. The right-winger has kept some pretty heady company during his career, but you get the sense things have gone to another level playing on a line with Backstrom. “There are a lot of really, really small plays around the ice that [make] the game so much easier for me and Ovie,” says Oshie.

That’s why pure hockey minds hold Backstrom in as high regard as do the fantasy players drawn to the guy who, since 2007–08, when he broke into the NHL, has more helpers than anybody save Henrik Sedin and Joe Thornton. And while a playmaker by nature—he’s drawn an assist on 45.3 percent of Ovechkin’s goals since they started taking the ice together—Backstrom also keeps foes guessing. “Pass, pass, pass, then all of a sudden, he’s ripping a shot,” says defenceman Mike Weber, who could stop worrying about Backstrom after he was dealt from Buffalo to Washington.

The subtlety Oshie referred to, especially in the defensive zone, often goes unnoticed by passive observers who don’t realize Backstrom is very much a cerebral two-way force in the mould of vintage Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk. When he follows somebody into the corner, his mind reads the situation and synthesizes information like a pilot landing a plane. Instead of assessing which way and how hard the wind is blowing, Backstrom will identify whether somebody is a left- or right-hand shot, then scan for that player’s best outlet option. He’s never going to run you through the boards, but he’ll break the right way with astonishing frequency, plucking the puck before it gets where it was intended to go. Then he’s in control—and if how he got there is lost on a lot of people, so be it. “I don’t really care about that,” Backstrom says. “I don’t waste energy on it.”