Quote:
Originally Posted by dying4acup
From my POV no urgency to get Brodie done just yet. I'm very appreciative of what he's done, but even if he goes to RFA, we don't risk losing him for nothing, and we can still take the risk of arbitration without him going UFA after.
Backlund is a bit more complicated. His valuable stats don't necessarily translate to arbitration, and yet, there is such a demand for centers, even average centers. I look at Tyler Bozak's deal as the biggest comparable.
I would wait until the new year, to make sure Backlund isn't just a one year wonder offensively, and health wise, then offer a team friendly 3yr deal between 3.5 and 4m/yr (settling at 4m/yr at worst) over 3yrs. At best he's Statsny (3rd center left out, because so many better ahead of him. At best he's around for awhile on a club friendly deal for a while. If we start being overly generous right now with Backlund, we are going to have serious problems with Monahan and Bennett going forward. And let's be real, Backlund hasn't had a healthy season until this last...
Even if we lose him (after next season), for nothing, we should be deep enough at the center position to replace him.
It's not quite as desperate as the oilers giving a big contract to Gagner for scoring an 8pt game, but paying 20m to Backlund now stinks of desperation.
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He did improve, but he also played top line minutes the entire year (The CP apologists used this as an excuse for 4 years prior). He did end the year with a small nagging injury that he seems to be quite prone for.
As I've said before, when the games matter, the first 20, hopefully 40,60, even 82 (while were alive in the playoff race) this is where you judge his performance next year. Going PPG at game 60 when this team is 20 points out of 8th and the teams were playing are overlooking us (tossing in a backup goalie for good measure) is not a good gauge.