The Blues announced on Friday that they have signed forward David Backes to a new 5-year contract extension that is reportedly worth $22.5 million, which works out to be a $4.5 million cap hit per season. The 26-year old Backes was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but this new contract extension will see to it that he isn't a free agent until the end of 2016 season, where he'll be 32 years old.
It has been a less-than stellar start for the American winger, who only has 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) in the first 14 games of the year with St. Louis, but an injury-riddled team with some roster consistency problems could be a big factor in those numbers, but looking forward to a bigger salary cap hit will bring some larger expectations. In 2010, Backes finished with 48 points in 79 games to finish ranked 139th in pool scoring, but his scoring pace in 2011 is only sitting at 35 points in 82 games and is currently ranked 272nd in pool scoring, so he has a long way to go to make that $4.5 million hit look like a good deal.
I currently have the Blues pegged with 10 players on their current 2012 roster, including the newly-signed Backes, at an estimated projection of $32.3 million. That's a very solid number for roster growth, giving the team plenty of room to deal with other potential free agents like T.J. Oshie, Matt D'Agostini and Patrik Berglund.
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