They’d only save $1.075 million in cap space if they buried him. They can use that to threaten him into loosening up the trade destinations.
Tried taking a look around the league to find some plausible trade partners. I figure there are 2 trade scenarios for him. First is a straight cap dump, the 2nd would be bad contract for bad contract. There’s a 3rd option, trade to a team with an agreement for them to buy him out, but that seems complicated. Anyways, options I came up with:
1. Minnesota- They have $21 million or so in cap space with 15 players signed. Their only internal work is RFA’s Kevin Fiala, Ryan Donato and Joel Eriksson Ek. Fiala will get decent raise, but they should have some space to fit in Backes, especially if they are trading Zucker. Obviously the teams did business at the deadline with the Coyle trade so Minny should have some groundwork done on a “sweetener.” Working on the assumption Backes would waive for Minnesota to play in his home state.
2. NYI- North of $20 million in cap space, Anders Lee and Anthony Beauvillier are their biggest UFA and RFA so they should have room. Would probably make sense after the 7/1 bonus is paid to Backes. Lou likes his grit guys, though he already has a ton. Maybe a stretch on Backes waiving for the Isles. They were a good team last year and not a crazy far move for his family. Arena situation may be a drawback.
3. Colorado- They have $36 million in space. Even with a big whopper of a contract coming in to Mikko Rantanen, they’ll have enough space to take on Backes. They are a young treat, perhaps some veteran leadership intrigued them. Sakic has taken on bad money in the past to lower the price on an asset he likes (Orpik and Grubauer) trade last year). Good team that is on the upswing, maybe he’d be agreeable to go there?
4. New Jersey- This one is probably the longest shot, again a post 7/1 deal here. Tons of cap space (even more than COL) young team, Hughes coming in, maybe the veteran leadership angle intrigues them. Sweeney’s made 2 trades with Shero, so they work well together.
I can’t really a bad money for bad money trade that makes sense. Most of the bad contracts that a rumored to be on the move either have more term left than Backes (Eriksson, Lucic, Neal), or are in teams the Bruins wouldn’t do business with (Toronto with Zaitsev and Marleau; Callahan in Tampa). The only one that kinda lines up is Kovalchuk in LA. He’d probably have more utility to the B’s than Backes, but he has a higher cap hit so no thanks. Plus Backes going to the worst team in the league, on the opposite coast, feels unlikely.