Boston Bruins: Do we have to wait until next season to shift David Backes?

The Boston Bruins still have two restricted free agents to re-sign. How to easily solve the salary cap issues? Somehow get rid of David Backes and his $6 million per year deal.

However, it seems unlikely that a David Backes trade would take place ahead of this coming season. The Boston Bruins already have to start thinking about the future, which is beyond the 2019-20 season.

Nevertheless, it’s easier said than done, whenever it might happen. The Boston Bruins don’t have many options left as the buy-out window has already closed and even then, a buy-out wouldn’t help to move the needle.

The most realistic time to trade David Backes comes next summer. In the 2020 off-season, the Boston Bruins will have a Backes trade closer than right now. Of course, it’s a big difference whether you try to ship a contract with one year left on it than one with two remaining years.

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Many fans use Patrick Marleau‘s trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Carolina Hurricanes as the comparable for a Backes trade and how the Bruins should get it done. However, there are no real comparables for David Backes and his situation.

Why did the Maple Leafs pay a first-round draft pick to attract Carolina to take Marleau’s contract? Because the Hurricanes had to absorb his $6.25 million salary-cap hit for the 2019-20 season. In 2020, the Bruins would be in the seemingly same situation performing David Backes trade. It’s a veteran with a year left on his contract worth $6 million per campaign.

However, it’s different, mainly because for the team which winds up with Backes, after buying him out, it would mean $4 million cap hit in the 2020-21 season and another $1 million of the salary cap hit for the 2021-2022 season for them.

Buying out Patrick Marleau’s contract meant taking his whole $6.25 million cap hit without any savings. The same cannot be applied to David Backes’ contract in 2020.

How can the Bruins sweeten the pot and not end up forced attaching a first-round draft pick in the potential David Backes trade? In that hypothetical trade, find a trade partner just like this year’s Ottawa Senators, who struggled even to get to the salary cap floor. Then, in such a trade, retain 50% of Backes’ salary.

Next, the scenario of Carolina and Marleau would unfold – a buy-out. However, where would that leave the Bruins and a trade suitor?

Both parties would end up with $2 million against their salary caps for the 2020-21 season and then only $0.5 million of the cap hit the following year. For the Boston Bruins, with another tough off-season coming up and players including Torey Krug, Jake DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle needing new contracts, a $4 million relief would be a blessing.

Besides, the Bruins would not have to attach a first-round draft pick in David Backes trade. How? Because of the price set by the Maple Leafs trading Marleau to Carolina. After the Canes executed the buy-out, they were left with a salary cap hit of $6.25 million.

The Boston Bruins’ trade partner, in this scenario, would be left with ‘only’ $2 million of the cap hit for the 2020-21 campaign. Boston would still need to pay, but not a first-round draft pick and they would save a huge amount of money.

The Bruins are probably stuck with David Backes for the 2019-20 season. It is nigh on impossible to see them finding a partner and trading him, as the buy-out would save practically nothing, either for the B’s or the trade suitor. The situation for the 2020 off-season, suddenly, changes dramatically in financial favor of the Bruins.

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Nonetheless, no one knows whether David Backes will still be playing beyond 2020, or whether the Bruins don’t somehow wangle an earlier trade. Or simply what if David Backes doesn’t turn around and prove there’s still a little gas in the tank. There are endless possible outcomes, for sure.

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