Boston Bruins: What’s next for David Backes and the Bruins?
By Luke Ryan
David Backes is in the unfortuante spot of being a 35 year old that the Boston Bruins recently waived and assigned to the minor league.
That’s a spot no NHL veteran wants to find themselves in, but indeed, is one that David Backes now finds himself in. The Boston Bruins did their best to keep him in the NHL as long as they could, but simple facts ended up sending him down.
Fact is that he hasn’t met expectations that came with signing a five-year $30 million contract. While he was never a 100-point guy, the realistic expectation was that he’d be good for around 50 points and also bring some grit and toughness.
In all fairness, David Backes has delivered on the grit, toughness and leadership side, it’s just the points production has slowly dried up.
His first season with the Boston Bruins saw a dip from the previous year’s 45 points in St. Louis to 38 points. That wasn’t too bad; you still had hope that it was just a blip and he’d be back above the forty-point marker again.
Year two with the Boston Bruins, he missed 25 games but still put up 33 points. Still diminishing returns, but not bad really. Only thing is that he was being paid $6 million a year. That put his cost at $181,818 a point.
Last year was the year you realised that David Backes truly couldn’t maintain a spot in the modern-day NHL. He only managed 20 points at a steep cost of $300,000 a point. It was clear he was a player in decline, even if he did see ice-time in 15 play-off encounters on the way to Game 7.
This season, it’s been clear since opening night that he no longer belongs in the Boston Bruins line-up. There is a huge need these days to be able to keep pace with the young speedsters and he no longer is able to. His lumbering, slightly more traditional power forward style is going, for the most part, out of fashion in favour of slick mitts and break-neck speed.
You genuinely end up feeling for the guy, who signed a deal believing he could make a difference and no finds himself berated because the club paid such a high price. Here are what we see as the three best solutions for him: