Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
Why would they sign 29 year old forward to a long term deal?
Flames will regret anything over $5m x 4 years for Backlund, I love his game right now but I suspect he'll be one of those "peak at 26-30 and disappear" type players
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You may well be correct, but players like Backlund get signed in this situation all the time to contracts which everyone knows won't be great at the end.
Why do it then?
Because Calgary is built to won know, or very soon, and Backlund is an important element to those plans.
Letting him go as a UFA, or even trading him, won't likely increase your chances at a Cup.
Building a team to "contend every year" doesn't exist in the cap world.
At some stage you have to "go for it" even if that means signing players to contracts that won't end well, based on the assumption that those years will be at a time when your windows is no longer open.
I'm not saying I'm in favour of giving Backlund 6 years at $6.5M or whatever, but that may be well what it takes to lock him up.