On Saturday, the Calgary Flames were the only team to take to the airwaves with a brand new deal in tow, as they signed centre Mikael Backlund to a new 3-year deal,Backlund was scheduled to become a restricted free agent in July, the last time before qualifying for unrestricted free agency in 2016, but ended up signing into that period for a couple of years and he will make just a shade over $10 million in those three seasons, a $3.575 million cap hit per season.
It wasn't quite a banner year for Backlund, who suffered an abdominal injury at the end of October and it kept him out of the lineup until the New Year, missing 29 games. If it wasn't for that injury, his scoring rate in 2015 was good enough to be in the pool worthy conversation, so that's why he doesn't get a fringe post mention today.In 52 games with the Flames, he registered 10 goals and 27 points, scoring at 0.52 points per game. He was ranked 215th among all forwards in scoring, despite his injury and I think there will be plenty of reason to have his 2016 projections along the same vein. He clicked well working between the 2nd and 3rd line for the team and at age 26, he is quickly becoming a solid veteran on the squad.
The Flames have a good portion of their projected 2016 lineup already filled in and it isn't even July 1st yet, so that is somewhat exciting. By my early count, I have the Flames already with 20 bodies that they could use on opening night, including three goalies, and they still have $18.7 million to spend, if they wanted to be a cap ceiling team.The word is that the Flames are looking to be active in this offseason, trying to improve upon a pretty good year in 2015, trying to avoid the traps that caught the Colorado Avalanche last season, so stay tuned!
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