Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - [Signing] Backlund re-signs. 6 years, AAV $5.35M

Brad Marsh · 02-16-2018, 06:54 PM

I'm a little surprised at how many people absolutely love this deal.

He's 53rd among centres in scoring this season. That's not likely to improve as he continues to age, and I suspect he has already hit his high water mark for points in the NHL. He will be on the wrong side of 30 for most of this contract. He's hit 50+ points once, and 40+ points only twice in his career. He is our second line centre this year, but only has 10 goals..........for a team that struggles to score, I'm not sure how well this is going to work out. His production is closer to that of a top-end third line centre, which he would be on a deeper team, but $5.35M/yr is too much for a third line guy.

I know scoring isn't everything, but you need it in that second line centre slot, and Flames could really benefit from additional top 9 scoring. The offensive production from Backlund will almost certainly decrease year over year on this contract. Not ideal.

The comparisons to Bergeron or Toews are laughable.

Sorry guys, I really like Backlund and really appreciate how much he loves being a Flame, but this term is too long and the $$ is too high for guy very unlikely to hit 50 points again in his career. We are upset with how much Brower makes on the third line. This contract could be worse than that for its last three years.

02-16-2018, 06:54 PM	#113
Brad Marsh Scoring Winger Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Dar es Salaam Exp:	I'm a little surprised at how many people absolutely love this deal. He's 53rd among centres in scoring this season. That's not likely to improve as he continues to age, and I suspect he has already hit his high water mark for points in the NHL. He will be on the wrong side of 30 for most of this contract. He's hit 50+ points once, and 40+ points only twice in his career. He is our second line centre this year, but only has 10 goals..........for a team that struggles to score, I'm not sure how well this is going to work out. His production is closer to that of a top-end third line centre, which he would be on a deeper team, but $5.35M/yr is too much for a third line guy. I know scoring isn't everything, but you need it in that second line centre slot, and Flames could really benefit from additional top 9 scoring. The offensive production from Backlund will almost certainly decrease year over year on this contract. Not ideal. The comparisons to Bergeron or Toews are laughable. Sorry guys, I really like Backlund and really appreciate how much he loves being a Flame, but this term is too long and the $$ is too high for guy very unlikely to hit 50 points again in his career. We are upset with how much Brower makes on the third line. This contract could be worse than that for its last three years. Last edited by Brad Marsh; 02-16-2018 at 06:57 PM.