Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
By what possible measure is Backlund a "lower half of the lineup" player?
Look, I have been waiting for him to drop off for a couple years now...its simply not going to happen. I was one who wanted him dealt off the team as recently as last season.
I was wrong. Dead wrong. He is an elite defensive center in the NHL who by any metric is among the games best. There is just no way to argue it at this point.
He will get WAY more than 4.5 million if he wants.
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You're supposedly a hockey guy. How do you fit Backlund into the budget? Be serious about this. Put your budget hat on. Where does he fit? Monahan is your number one. Bennett is the guy you hope steps up to be your number two at worst. If you sign Backlund to a long term contract at $5.5M, you can kiss Bennett goodbye. Plain and simple. Run the numbers. I've posted this numerous times, and it is highly accurate.
Every dollar overpaid to one player has to come out of the budget elsewhere. You really need to see the numbers in action to get a better understanding of what a few dollars here and there means. Take a $70M budget as an example, which is a fair number to use considering the cap and the space you need for call-ups for injuries and such. I would think a healthy budget breakdown is going to look like $40M on forwards, $24M on defense, and $6M on goaltending. So something like this, taking names out the mix.
$7M-$7M-$5M
$3M-$5M-$3M
$2M-$3M-$2M
$1M-$1M-$1M
$.75M-$.75M
$7M-$5M
$4M-$3M
$2M-$1.5M
.75M
$5M
$1M
Where does Backlund fit without screwing the team over when Bennett steps up?