Mikael Backlund re-signs with Calgary Flames for three years
Someone with the Calgary Flames must have read one of our stories on offer sheets. Why? Because they re-signed forward Mikael Backlund, a pending restricted free agent, to a three-year contract worth $10.725 million.
Not like he was a candidate for an offer sheet, but hey … who knows?
Nice job by Calgary, also taking away two of the 26-year-old Backlund’s unrestricted free agent years.
Matchsticks and Gasoline sees this as a win for the Flames by keeping Backlund under a decent-sized contract. Last year he had 27 points in 52 games. The previous year he was a touch under 20 goals with 18 tallies in 76 contests. His previous contract was for two years at $3 million.
His extension in 2013-14 was more of a "prove it" deal rather than a bridge contract, and Backlund proved it. After being demoted to fourth line duty, Backlund worked his way up to the top six and has found a permanent place there. Brad Treliving acknowledged Backlund as a part of the core in his final press conference, and confirmed that the team was working towards this deal.
The deal is very well worked, keeping Backlund around for a while longer while keeping it cap friendly (not that the team needed any help being under the cap).
And since this is the Flames, we have to talk about advanced stats … just because. His CF% 5-on-5 was 46.44 percent according to Natural Stat Trick. His shot attempts relative percentage per the NHL’s enhanced stats site was plus-2.2 percent.
As the Calgary Sun notes, the Flames have locked up a lot of their younger players for the next few seasons:
With Backlund, sophomore 31-goal scorer Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett (the 2014 first-round pick who skated in all the playoffs but will be a rookie next season) and veteran Matt Stajan, the Flames have a shored up a collection of centres for the next several years.
Yeah, they may need to load up on talented centers with that McDavid guy likely coming to Edmonton.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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