Nicklas Backstrom became the newest member of Brynäs IF earlier this week, signing a one-year contract that includes an option for an additional year with the SHL team. Backstrom will resume his playing career after nearly two years away from hockey with the NHL’s Washington Capitals due to lingering hip injury issues.
In his final contract with the Capitals, a five-year, $46 million agreement, the star Swede made $9.2 million per season. With this new deal back with his hometown club, the 37-year-old is undoubtedly taking a massive pay cut from those previous figures, and was sheepish when asked by Aftonbladet’s Amanda Zaza what his new salary was.
“You can go to the tax office, [Johan Alcen] (Brynäs’s sports director) will probably have to answer that,” Backstrom told Zaza, per a translation by Google Translate. “There were no frills. I play for the joy and love of hockey and the club.”
Backstrom is expected to be the team’s final addition from a forward perspective, as even though he is not the club’s most expensive player, he’s still making enough money for them not to be able to explore much else roster-wise this summer.
“He is not [the highest-paid player], and then I say the same as him,” Alcen told Zaza. “It is an agreement we have entered into, and the agreement on what is written there we want to stand.
“We haven’t sat around and counted Nicklas in. It’s a jackpot that he wants to be here; we won’t sign any more forwards.”
According to PuckPedia, Backstrom made around $115.55 million while being a member of the Capitals organization for 18 years. The total does not include the $4.65 million in performance bonuses that were included on his entry-level contract with the team.
Brynäs 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. Outside of adding Backstrom, they’ve added numerous other notable names in an effort to win their first title since 2012.
The team has also signed Michal Kempny, Kieffer Bellows, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Robert Hagg, Mattias Norlinder, Collin Delia, and Damian Clara, who all have prior or current extensive ties to the NHL.
