Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
He didn't make the players around him good enough.
Since the start of the 2015-16 the Flames are 110-94-19 for 239 pts... good enough for 19th spot within the league.
Since the start of 2014-15 they are 155-126-26 good for 18th spot in the league.
With Backlund being such a strong 2nd line centre the Flames are definitely not in the top half of the league.
He is pretty well slotted in as the Flames 2C for the next 5 years.
Definition of crazy ... doing the same thing expecting different results.
The Flames either have messed up with the other 8 long term deals or they are messing up with his.
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Explain to me how subtracting Backlund but keeping the rest of the team the same makes them better. Even if they traded Brodie and Backlund and some of their best prospects, I don't see how they get significantly better in the short term. Only way would be to trade for futures and hope it works out better in a few years, at which point you may as well trade Gaudreau or Monahan.
The Flames already have the team that they are going to win with or not. They can add some more scoring on the wings, they could use a defender to trade for more scoring, but fundamentally this team is either going to succeed or not as constructed. Backlund is part of it. Even if they somehow found some magical second line centre better than him, he slides down and is the best third line centre in the league. And no, 5.35 million is not a number that is going to cost the Flames another skilled player. They have amazing value in the Gaudreau, Monahan, Hamilton, Brodie, and Smith contracts. They have the room to make it work. Plenty of other players in Stajan, Brouwer, Frolik, and Stone whose contracts can be dealt with to make room if needs be.
Hard to see how this is a bad contract in the short term. The only argument is that it will be bad in the last couple of years. By that time, the Flames will have many other issues they will have to deal with anyway. This deal is about winning in the next two to three years.