David Backes would have loved to return to the St. Louis Blues, but a single disagreement during contract negotiations ultimately spelled his farewell.
The club's former captain admits that negotiations came down to the duration of a contract, which both sides could not find common ground on.
"If you can’t agree on term, and both sides are pretty stuck on term, I don’t know how you get a three-quarter year or a half year ... to find a happy medium there," Backes said, according to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, we’re a half-million dollars away, let’s meet in the middle and stop this lunacy.’ That’s a very bridgeable gap that wouldn’t be a question. But when it’s term..."
To general manager Doug Armstrong, whose offer to Backes maxed out at four years, the fear of a buy out down the road ultimately played into the decision to not offer a longer contract.
"There’s a constant drove of buy outs every year and it’s always players signed on this date," Armstrong said. "Philosophically, you don’t want to be signing players thinking there’s a greater percentage chance they’re going to be bought out. I’m not saying that about our two players (Backes and Troy Brouwer). I’m just saying in general, term scares me."
Backes - who eventually agreed to a five-year contract with the Boston Bruins - understands Armstrong's position, admitting the Blues offered him a four-year deal and then suggested going by a year-to-year basis. But with Backes' original plan to retire a Blue, he knew it would put things in jeopardy.
"See that’s a tough ..." Backes said. "All of the sudden when you’ve bled Blue for 13 years and you think you’ve got two or three more, and the team thinks you’ve got one more, or they don’t see a role for you ... then you’re going elsewhere and not able to retire as a Blue, (which) is what the initial desire was from the get-go."
In the end Backes has no hard feelings, and he doesn't want to point blame for how things ended in St. Louis - the only team he has ever played for.
"I don’t want to sling mud at anyone because I think there’s plenty of blame to share on both sides, and I’m willing to accept my portion," Backes said. "There’s no leaving town with fingers-out-the-window type of mentality. They respect the work that I’ve done and the player I’ve been for this team. I love this town, love this city, love this team and think it’s an awesome hockey organization."
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