Advertisement

David Backes with emotional, frustrating farewell to St. Louis Blues


Once in a while, you see a free agent leave a team and realize that the player and the team have become synonymous.

Such is the case with David Backes and the St. Louis Blues.

Backes was a career player for the Blues, through 727 games and 49 more in the postseason. But as his contract expired after last season, so did his time in St. Louis. Backes signed with the Boston Bruins for five years and $30 million on Friday.

It was an emotional goodbye.

But couldn’t the sides come together? The Blues are taking one more run at it with coach Ken Hitchcock and most of the same cast that made the Western Conference Final last season.

Why not bring the captain back?

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Because it wasn’t a question of next season, according to GM Doug Armstrong. It was a question of the fourth or fifth ones.

From the Post-Dispatch:

“We talked last night and again this morning,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “At the end of the day, the term was a concern for myself. David is a great player, and he’s been a great Blue, and we wish him nothing but the best. But when you project out long-term, it was problematic for me personally to project out that far with players.

“There’s analytical data that shows where players play at their peak, and we wanted to try to stay within a window. We were ready to stretch that window, but only to a certain level. That’s more of a personal thing than anything. Ultimately, David took a really good offer from Boston, and we wish him nothing but the best. He’ll be sorely missed.”

Analytical data! Nerd-gasm!

Backes, however, said the issue wasn’t just term but finances as well.

“There wasn’t an agreement on term or dollars. Usually, you want to get one or the other,” said Backes, who said there wasn’t much movement on the Blues’ side of the negotiating table and that they had a “business approach” to the talks.

Gradually, it set in that Backes would no longer be a member of the St. Louis Blues.

“It’s a decade of my life,” he said. “It was tough, in that it was all I’ve known. The process of the negotiation, when you kind of have that feeling that it’s not coming together, that grieving process started for me. My wife was really emotional last night. Thankfully, she’s a strong woman and has now embraced the move to Boston.”

And so has David Backes, who said the more he spoke with the Bruins, the more he got a “goosebumps on the arms feeling” about the opportunity.

“There were a few holes or deficiencies with the team, and they seem to fit my strengths as a player,” he said.

“It seems like an awesome fit, hockey wise.”

Even if St. Louis will always feel like home.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.