Brynäs IF made huge news on Monday when the SHL club announced the signing of longtime NHL star Nicklas Backstrom to a one-year contract. The deal also includes an option for a second season.
Backstrom makes the move back to one of only three professional teams he has ever played for after spending the final year of his last contract with the Washington Capitals on long-term injured reserve. Outside of a 19-game stint in the KHL with Dynamo Moscow during the 2012-13 NHL lockout, Backstrom has spent all 20 seasons of his active career either with Brynäs or on the Capitals.
“It feels incredible,” Backstrom told Aftonbladet’s Amanda Zaza on Monday, per a translation by Google Translate. “I’m happy, excited. It’s nice to be home and get a new chance here at home, and play with the incredibly wonderful team, and the team building they’ve done in recent years. I’m grateful for Brynäs wanting to have me with them.”
Backstrom came up through Brynäs’s junior ranks and played three seasons with their senior team before arriving in the NHL with the Washington Capitals for the 2007-08 season. In what was then known as the Swedish Elite League, Backstrom recorded 66 points (22g, 44a) in 110 games from 2004 to 2007. He also had 7 points (4g, 3a) in 11 playoff games.
The 37-year-old center admitted Monday that while his hip injury that kept him out of action for almost two years had him considering retirement at one point, he also always had it in his mind that he’d like to finish his playing days where his career started.
“For me, it has been about being able to finish in Brynäs,” Backstrom said. “Maybe I didn’t think that it would always work for both parties. One, myself and the organization.”
Backstrom’s return to his hometown club was first rumored back in mid-May when Aftonbladet’s Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson revealed the planned one-year contract. However, Backstrom told Zaza that only he and his wife, Liza, knew for sure his genuine intention to continue playing back in Sweden.
“It’s always important to have a supportive wife,” Backstrom said. “She’s been very supportive, when you haven’t had hockey, there’s been a lot of time with the kids. So you get to know them a little better, too. Everyone has been very supportive in this decision.”
The couple listed their Northern Virginia home for sale last April. They own a luxury villa in Gävle, Sweden, where Brynäs plays their home games.
“Sometimes the newspapers make mistakes, we all know that,” Backstrom said. “But ever since we got home, there has been a huge desire on my part, and of course, it has been built on.”
Backstrom will be joining a Brynäs team that finished atop the SHL regular-season standings with a 34-15-3 record this past year. The club then made it to the championship series in the playoffs but fell in six games to Luleå HF.
The successful season followed the team’s 2023-24 season in the second tier of Swedish hockey, the HockeyAllsvenskan, after being relegated from the SHL at the end of the 2022-23 campaign. They won promotion in 2024 and immediately shot up to the top of the SHL’s standings.
Brynäs was led in scoring by longtime Anaheim Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg, who will be back for the 2025-26 season. Backstrom is one of many notable additions that Brynäs has made this offseason, which include Michal Kempny, Kieffer Bellows, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Robert Hagg, Mattias Norlinder, Collin Delia, and Damian Clara.
As for what his role on the team might be, Backstrom admitted he was unsure and it’d be decided by others.
“We’ll see. It’s entirely up to the coaches,” Backstrom said. “The only thing I can do is try to prepare myself in the best way and be as good as possible.”
The Brynäs management and coaching staff have plans to delay Backstrom’s re-debut in the SHL, but the team’s sports director, Johan Alcen, hinted that it could come against Timrå IK. Brynäs plays Timrå four times, with their earliest matchups coming at home on October 1 and November 19.
