Boston Bruins: What about sending David Backes to the minors?

This may be a slightly controversial take as it’s not the done thing to force a veteran to ride the buses in the minor league; however, maybe David Backes would be willing to do the Boston Bruins a favour?

Obviously, the notion of David Backes dropping down to play with the Providence Bruins as opposed to the Boston Bruins seems slightly ludicrous. In fact, even suggesting it to the player borders on questionable. However, fact is, it could help the team and the player out immensely.

Consider the notion of dropping David Backes into the American Hockey League and him rediscovering the game that led to a $6 million per year deal in the first place. The move in itself save the Boston Bruins $1 million per year against the salary cap and if he were to re-discover his form, that million dollars becomes ‘found money’.

It’d be a bold call to ask the player, but you could make a sales pitch on being the mentor to the younger generation. The likes of Jack Studnicka and Pavel Shen could learn plenty from a player that has been in the NHL as long as he has. What’s more, we know he is a leader; he was formerly the St. Louis Blues captain after all.

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Maybe you make a deal with him that provided he finds some form and does a stand-up job with the youngsters that you’ll give him a promotion later in the year. Obviously this late in his career, he’s not going to want to miss out on a chance at the Stanley Cup (again).

The Boston Bruins could well actually start something here. There is this notion around hockey that demotion to the minors of a veteran is not a ‘classy’ move. Maybe the Bruins can make it classy.

If you sell it to David Backes the right way, this could be a situation that all parties come out of successfully. For the player, he gets to play regularly (as opposed to potentially spending the season a healthy scratch night-in, night-out in the NHL).

Perhaps Backes has considered going into coaching as a role beyond his playing career; now is his perfect chance to learn the ropes in an environment that isn’t as cut-throat as the NHL.

Not only that, he may actually find the fun in hockey again, the reason he became a professional hockey player, especially with the youthful exuberance that’d be surrounding him. On a ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’ basis, both David Backes and the Boston Bruins can win this one.

It’s bold, it’s outside of the box, but maybe riding the buses for at least some of next season would be something that David Backes would consider, especially if it gets him that one last shot at engraving his name on the Stanley Cup.

Call it a crazy take, say it’ll never happen, but players will often go to great lengths to ensure they get the chance to put their name on that trophy.