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Colorado Avalanche Had Interest In Mikael Backlund

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The Colorado Avalanche contacted the Calgary Flames about trading for veteran two-way center Mikael Backlund earlier this summer, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his 32 Thoughts written column Tuesday.

Friedman notes these discussions took place before Colorado eventually filled their center vacancies by acquiring Ryan Johansen and the rights to Ross Colton in trades with the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning, respectively. Colorado was in need of center depth after it became apparent they weren’t going to keep J.T. Compher, who filled in at second-line center after Nazem Kadri departed during the 2022 free agency period. Compher would sign a rather rich five-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings on July 1.

The Flames were likely less open to moving Backlund at the time than they might be now. This was before Backlund said in multiple interviews that his willingness to re-sign with the only NHL organization he’s ever known was contingent on the team’s success this season. He’s just one of many high-end pending UFAs on the Flames roster, a list that also notably includes Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev.

Backlund, while he’ll be 35 before next season ends, can still shoulder second-line minutes and would’ve been an ideal fit on a team with as much high-end wing depth in the top six as Colorado. He would’ve gotten to play with at least one out of a pair of extremely formidable two-way wingers in Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin, potentially forming one of the deadliest dual-threat trios in the league. However, his stock is at an all-time high after registering a career-high 56 points last season and averaging over 18 minutes per game. For comparison, they acquired Johansen and Colton for a combined return of the signing rights to Alex Galchenyuk and a second-round pick – it likely would’ve cost much more to pry Backlund away from Calgary.

Flames Notes: Zadorov, Wolf, Captaincy

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There have yet to be any extension talks between the Flames and Nikita Zadorov, according to the blueliner in an appearance on Sportsnet 960 (audio link).  He indicated that he was waiting for an offer over the summer but one hasn’t come just yet.  The 28-year-old is in the final season of a two-year deal that carries a $3.75MM AAV and is coming off a breakout year offensively, recording 14 goals.  His previous career best in that department was seven in a single season and he had just nine tallies over the prior three years combined.  With that in mind, it isn’t surprising to see Calgary take a wait-and-see approach with Zadorov to see if his offensive prowess last year was a one-off or a sign of things to come.

More from Calgary:

  • In an interview with Sportsnet’s Eric Francis, GM Craig Conroy stated that he wants to get goaltender Dustin Wolf into some NHL games this season but also doesn’t want him to be in a backup role where he’s playing just once a week. Accordingly, it seems likely that their plan for him this season will be to keep him with the AHL’s Wranglers where he was nothing short of dominant in 2022-23 with a 2.09 GAA and a .932 SV% in 55 games and then bring him up for spot starts with the Flames here and there.  With Calgary being quite tight to the salary cap, that plan may require some creative roster movement to accomplish.
  • Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson examines the captain conundrum that the Flames are facing.  The team has been without one since losing Mark Giordano to Seattle two years ago and their most logical candidate – Mikael Backlund – is on an expiring contract and is taking a wait-and-see approach to how the season starts before deciding on potentially starting extension talks.  Elias Lindholm is another logical choice but he’s also on an expiring deal.  In Conroy’s interview with Francis, he confirmed that a captain will be named for this season.

No Extension Talks Scheduled For Mikael Backlund And Oliver Kylington

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While there has been some optimism in Calgary regarding the possibility of both Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin signing extensions, things appear to be more of a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Mikael Backlund.  His agent J.P. Barry told TSN’s Salim Valji that there are currently no plans for discussions about Backlund or teammate Oliver Kylington.  Instead, the plan is to wait and evaluate how the season progresses before holding any sort of meaningful contract negotiations.

Backlund has spent his entire 15-year career with Calgary who drafted him in the first round (24th overall) back in 2007.  The 34-year-old is actually coming off his best season offensively, one that saw him put up 19 goals and 37 assists in 82 games.  For his career, he has 492 points in 908 games and he has expressed a desire to reach the 1,000-game mark in a Flames uniform.

Backlund has one more year remaining on his deal, a pact that carries a $5.35MM AAV and a 21-team no-trade clause.  A report surfaced last month that noted trade offers for the middleman had been particularly light in spite of his breakout year so it appears Calgary will go into the season with him anchoring the second line.

As for Kylington, the fact that no discussions are planned shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.  Last month, the blueliner revealed the reason for his season-long absence was due to things going on with his family which caused mental and psychological problems.  Having missed that much time, it makes sense for both sides to wait and see how things go early on before pondering the idea of an extension.  Like Backlund, the 26-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

When he took over as GM, Craig Conroy indicated that he wanted to avoid a situation where he could lose a key player without any return by seeing them walk in free agency like Johnny Gaudreau did in the 2022 offseason.  That played a part in them moving Tyler Toffoli, another pending UFA, to New Jersey earlier in the offseason.  However, with Lindholm, Hanifin, Backlund, and Kylington all appearing to want to see how things go at the start of this coming season before deciding on their willingness to extend, he won’t be getting any further clarity for a little while longer.

Flames Open To Bringing In Someone On A PTO

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  • The Flames haven’t ruled out bringing in someone on a tryout in the coming days, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Francis (Twitter link). While GM Craig Conroy has expressed a desire to let some of Calgary’s younger prospects push for a spot on the roster after not getting too many looks last season, a veteran willing to take the league minimum could give that player a leg up over a youngster on a more expensive entry-level deal.  That difference could be notable as Calgary is one of many teams that project to be close to the cap line this season.

Noah Hanifin Reverses Course, Open To Extension In Calgary

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Speaking with reporters, including Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg at the NHL’s media tour in Las Vegas, Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin said he’s “absolutely” willing to consider an extension with the team.

Hanifin, 26, was unwilling to sign an extension in Calgary at the beginning of the offseason, according to reporting from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Along with Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, who have expressed a conditional willingness to extend depending on the team’s performance this season, Hanifin is slated for unrestricted free agency next summer. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season in which he played 81 of 82 games, registered seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points, recorded a 53.0% Corsi for at even strength, and averaged a career-high 22:39 per game. LeBrun said earlier this summer Calgary was likely to trade Hanifin – something that didn’t come to fruition, and he’s now projected to start 2023-24 alongside potential captaincy candidate Rasmus Andersson on the team’s top pairing.

If they do extend him, it certainly won’t be on a discount – as is the likely scenario with Backlund and Lindholm. With extensions unlikely to be reached before the start of the season, Evolving Hockey projects an eight-year, $7.5MM AAV deal for Hanifin to remain in Calgary. Their model also predicts an eight-year extension at $8.4MM per season for Lindholm, but recent reporting from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that figure will be closer to $9MM if Lindholm does extend. For Backlund, they predict a four-year deal at around $5.5MM per season. For a team with little to no salary cap flexibility this summer, is extending all three even financially feasible if the players remain open to it?

The short answer is barely. CapFriendly currently projects the Flames with roughly $35.5MM in cap space for the 2024-25 season with a roster size of just 11 players, assuming the Upper Limit rises from $83.5MM to $87.5MM as projected. Taking the figures above means re-signing all three of Backlund, Hanifin and Lindholm would cost around $22MM, bringing that cap space figure to $13.5MM with a roster size of only 14. That would involve filling out the rest of their roster with contracts averaging less than $1.5MM AAV apiece, and it’ll likely take significantly more than that number to retain other pending UFA defenders like Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov as well as re-signing pending RFA forward Dillon Dubé.

Calgary Flames Make Changes to Scouting, Front Office Staff

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Friedman: Lindholm Extension Could Near $9MM AAV

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The 2023-24 season hasn’t even started yet, and some Calgary Flames fans may already be tired of discussing pending UFA Elias Lindholm’s future with the team. It’s been a major talking point this summer, with a potential mass exodus of unrestricted free agents from the Flames next offseason. Last week, however, Lindholm confirmed he’s open to the idea of an extension in Calgary, and today, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave us some clarity on what a deal may look like.

Last season, Lindholm finished second on the Flames in scoring with 22 goals, 42 assists and 64 points in 80 games. It was a falloff from his career-high 2021-22 campaign between Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, where the then-27-year-old posted 42 goals and 82 points in 82 games alongside a ridiculous +61 rating. For comparison, 25-year-old Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson, who’s scored 85 goals in 156 games over the past two seasons, is signed for seven more seasons at a $7.143MM cap hit.

Talks Quiet Up To This Point Between Flames, Elias Lindholm

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Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm has been one of the most common names in the rumor mill this offseason as one of the top unrestricted free agents set to be available on the 2024 market. Speculation has run rampant about whether Lindholm would be willing to sign an extension in Alberta or if he’d follow the path of Tyler Toffoli and potentially Noah Hanifin and find his way out of Calgary before the 2024 trade deadline.

Lindholm cleared some of that up himself over the weekend, telling HockeySverige’s Ronnie Ronnkvist he’s open to staying in Calgary but said he would mostly leave it up to his agent and the team to work out a deal. Those talks haven’t started in earnest yet, however, says Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on today’s edition of 32 Thoughts.

From what I understand, the Flames and Lindholm have really been quiet this summer when it came to contract negotiations. I would expect that to pick up as he returns and things get closer to the season.

It’ll likely take a huge offer to convince the 28-year-old to avoid testing free agency next July. There will be no shortage of suitors with an obvious need down the middle looking to dole out money (and term) to one of the league’s more defensively responsible point-producing pivots.

If the Flames aim to remain competitive over the life of the long-term deals Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri signed last summer, then it’s likely worth paying to keep Lindholm. The team has some solid forward prospects coming, namely Matthew Coronato, Samuel Honzek and Jakob Pelletier, but none project as centers. There’s no feasible option in their pipeline to replace Lindholm anytime soon, meaning they’d be looking to commit money and terms to a different center in free agency anyway to fill his gap.

Lindholm’s defensive acumen is also necessary regarding long-term roster construction for GM Craig Conroy. Mikael Backlund has long been the team’s two-way heart and soul, and not only will he be 35 years old before the 2023-24 season ends, but he’s also only got one year left on his deal and could opt to find a new home next summer. Calgary won’t find anyone else that fits that mold, at least with the ability to produce offensively like Lindholm, on July 1 next year.

Of course, this depends on Lindholm maintaining his willingness to sign an extension in Calgary. A slow start out of the gate will likely be the nail in the coffin for any of Calgary’s big-name pending UFAs, who will look to spend their prime or twilight years on a team closer to Stanley Cup contention. Lindholm, who’s registered 325 points in 369 games as a Flame since 2018, will be a large part of that.

Lindholm Open To Signing Extension

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The future of Elias Lindholm with the Flames has been one of the bigger discussion points of the summer.  Early on, it didn’t seem as if the 28-year-old was open to staying beyond the end of his contract which ends after the upcoming season but lately, that belief has softened.  Speaking with HockeySverige’s Ronnie Ronnkvist, the middleman indicated that he is indeed open to staying with Calgary but noted that there is a lot still to be agreed on for that to happen.  Lindholm carries a cap charge of $4.85MM for 2023-24 but could push for close to double that if he makes it to the open market next summer as one of the top two-way centers in the league.

Former Flames Prospect Cameron Whynot Commits To Acadia University

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  • After the Calgary Flames conceded the exclusive signing rights to defense prospect Cameron Whynot, the 20-year-old will now suit up for Acadia University in Canada instead of turning pro, according to SaltWire’s Willy Palov. The Flames opted not to sign the 2021 third-round pick to an entry-level contract earlier this summer after a pair of disappointing post-draft seasons with the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads, during which he failed to eclipse the 0.68 points per game and the +13 rating he posted during his draft year. It’ll be at least another summer before Whynot attempts to make the jump to pro hockey, likely by signing an AHL or ECHL contract (or heading overseas).

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