Backes was benched Saturday and Monday, so this was coming. The 2nd line experiment failed, so the only spots left for him are 3rd or 4th line. The current 4th line has gained enough traction that Bruce wasn’t going to shake them up. The 3rd line has been good enough to keep together. And so out Backes goes.
They’ll have to figure something out with Backes in the summer. Buyout is probably likely, but that would provide very little cap savings for next year (buyout cap hit is $5.667 AAV for next year, $2.667 AAV in 20-21 and then $667K for 21-22 and 22-23). His NMC moves to a NTC in the summer where he can submit an 8-team trade list. That’ll be difficult to work with. Any trade would probably have to be bad money-for-bad money which could leave them in a deeper hole. Maybe just ride it out through next year and hope they get a compliance buyout at lockout time?