Photo: NBC Washington
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom held a press conference with GM Brian MacLellan and Team President Dick Patrick on Tuesday afternoon after he inked a five-year contract that carries a cap hit of $9.2 million.
Nicklas Backstrom at the podium! He’s got a new 5-year contract with the Caps pic.twitter.com/6GRl5srE1n
— Scott Abraham (@ScottABC7) January 14, 2020
Backstrom negotiated his contract by himself and drove such a hard bargain that MacLellan joked that he is afraid that captain Alex Ovechkin, who is eligible to sign a contract extension on July 1, will ask Backstrom to negotiate his contract for him. MacLellan was very complimentary of Backstrom’s negotiating skills and professionalism but acknowledge that Backstrom was “probably a little stubborn at times.”
MacLellan said that the two explored shorter and longer contract lengths but met at five years because it worked for each party.
Asked if there was ever any doubt whether he would stay in Washington beyond this season, Backstrom said, “No, actually, no. I had one goal in mind and that was to stay here.” He felt like five years made sense for him considering he turned 32 two months ago.
Backstrom told Ovechkin about his new contract extension on Monday and he received a big hug. He joked that Ovechkin asked him about his contract negotiation status every day.
After Backstrom signed, MacLellan said that the Capitals would have to get “creative” to re-sign goaltender Braden Holtby, who can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and who will not negotiate a contract until the season is over. He described “creative” as making trades or finding other ways to clear salary cap space.
Backstrom is optimistic that this won’t be his last contract but said that this “is a good start.” He will see what the Capitals want to do when the time comes to negotiate a new contract.
Patrick described Backstrom as irreplaceable. “If you look at it from the reverse side, if he was going somewhere else, if we didn’t make a deal, like how do you replace [Backstrom]? They don’t grow on trees,” he said.
WATCH – "Thinking about it, that I'm going to spend the next five years here, give me goosebumps."@backstrom19 is staying right here in Washington with the @Capitals!
A new 5-year, $46 million dollar contract.
More tonight on @ABC7News!@CapitalsPR @KgriggsPhoto @NoVa_Caps pic.twitter.com/DUIrE1KtUT
— Scott Abraham (@ScottABC7) January 14, 2020
Backstrom discussed his contract extension more with Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper. You can find the translation here.
You can find the full interview below:
Nicklas Backstrom’s press conference on signing a 5-year contract with Capitals General Manager Brian Maclellan and Team President Dick Patrick. #ALLCAPS #NickysBack pic.twitter.com/o4iLLWORLM
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 14, 2020
By Harrison Brown