[Poe969]

He's had one good season as a second liner, he's good defensively and has great advanced stats and intangibles but he is just not a second line player...at least not on a winning team. He had a really good season where he put up 53 points but before that he only put up more than 40 points once. He's good defensively and teams need that but they need that on the third line, for the most part he's around a 40ish point player. Do you really think having a 40 point center as your second best center is going to win you championships?

Don't get me wrong, I like Backlund and would love if he signed a deal that was paying him to be a third line center on a shorter term contract but if he's looking for anything more than 5 million for anything more than 4 years, I think you have to let him walk or trade him. He will get more than he's worth as a UFA because players always do, I just don't want the Flames to be stuck with a guy who likely won't score close to 50 points and is over 30 anchored as their second line guy.