Francis: Backlund contract talks heating up. Ask is around $5 mil x 5 or 6 years

[transplant99]

Aav: $5.350m

Takes him to age 35. Not sure about the term, but the $$ are fine.

[burn_this_city]

Awesome!!

[theinfinitejar]

Hooray!

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not really a fan of the deal as it's too long.

UFA's (including UFA's to be) pretty much all sign deals that are "deemed to long" by management's side. That's what happens when you are potentially bidding against other teams.

Backhand has no reason to agree to a deal that suits the Flames purposes.

[Anduril]

Imagine you're a player like Backlund who realistically can expect this to be the last contract. Anything less than 5 is a non starter. Unless the savings were significant, I think 6 is a fair length given the caphit.

There's no way he isn't overpaid by the last couple years but value wise he's worth more right now.

[Toonage]

He would have gotten more on the open market. Respect his commitment to the team. Solid deal for a solid player and by all accounts a good person!

[Lanny_McDonald]

Good to see Backlund sign, but too long and for too much money. They are going to be paying their third line center $5.35M in two years. If he gets passed by another center, god help the budget. There better not be a NTC or NMC clause in there. Things could get ugly fast. It's about $800K too rich and a year too long. Oh well, at least they got that problem put to bed and can deal with the decline when it happens. Good for everybody for the next few years.

[lazypucker]

I really hope he won’t turn into a Stajan or a Brouwer by age 32/33. Any details as to if the contract is front loaded or such so that it makes trading him away easier in the future?