St. Louis Blues Rumors Surrounding Backes Heat Up

It seems like everyone and their pal is speculating on whether or not St. Louis Blues captain David Backes will stick around next summer, or be kicked to the curb like unappealing old trash. The Hockey News is the latest contender to bring up the possibility of Backes bidding farewell to his Blue Note sweater, and while I did promise on Twitter I would fight the next person who talked about Backes leaving, I’ll let this one pass.

People in glass houses can’t throw stones, after all.

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Here’s what THN had to say:

"The Blues captain will earn $4.75 million in actual salary in 2015-16. The Blues have come up short in post-season play, making this coming season a crucial for the 31-year-old Backes and his teammates. Another early playoff exit could result in significant changes to their core. Backes could be among them."

The author of the piece, Lyle Richardson, isn’t out of line to focus in on Backes like this. In fact, it’s a darn good question. Will Backes still be in a Blue Note sweater next fall?

It’s true, Backes’ cap hit is going to be an issue for St. Louis next season, whether or not they want to keep him. Looking around the league at captain’s salaries, he’s far from an expensive player, and probably contributes more to the team than he’s being paid for, in terms of worth. In fact, Backes’s cost comes in only a smidge above Buffalo Sabres captain Brian Gionta, a player the Sabres really brought on for his presence in the room, not on the ice.

He’s even earning only $35,000 more a season than Andrew Ladd, the Winnipeg Jets captain, whose team only made the playoffs for the first time this last season.

Every season Backes has captained the Blues, they have made it to at least the first round of the playoffs.

However, despite Backes’ pretty low cost, he’s aging up (as all do) and will be 32 by the time July 1 rolls around next year. Additionally, St. Louis will be looking to re-sign Jaden Schwartz and Dimitrij Jaskin, with an eye towards Shattenkirk and Steen’s deals coming up for renewal the year after that.

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Additionally, Backes’s position is in question at the moment. With a handful of centers at the AHL level who might break into the NHL fairly soon, Backes could find himself flipping back and forth between wing and center, which makes him valuable from a flexibility standpoint, but also makes it harder for his agent to point to a real need the Blues have and demonstrate how Backes fills that.

The Blues will want to keep Backes’s cost down, at the very least. In order to do so, they can lowball him, and cite any number of issues they want to clear up. Like, for example, the fact that Backes hasn’t won them a Cup.

The Blues can call Backes’s leadership into question, considering the team’s piss-poor performance during the playoffs this and last season. Anything’s worth a try when you’re bargaining for dollars, right?

Additionally, there’s the issue of Backes’s amazing PIM — amazing in that it’s one of the highest on the team and he’s a first-liner. It’s not necessarily a plus for someone who’s a 20-goal scorer and routinely crosses 50 points in a season.

While St. Louis has valued his old-school grit and toughness on the ice, it’s also likely that their “new direction” of footspeed and possession doesn’t fit well with Backes and his style of play.

While we certainly have a ways to go (and a number of speculative articles as more information is revealed) before the Backes contract situation is resolved and put to bed, it will be worth seeing how Backes meshes with the barely-tweaked-at-all Blues over the next season. If there are any real issues there, you can expect the Blues to put up a real fight when it comes time to talk contracts.

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