Why The Washington Capitals Not Trading Evgeny Kuznetsov Was A Great Idea

Nicklas Backstrom’s Decline

Time has come for us all in one way or another. Some of those reasons are much darker than others, lets just skip right past those shall we. When it comes to sports and athletes you only have a short time to play at the highest level. Father Time is undefeated and he will remain so going forward. Right now, among many others, he has his close sights set on Nicklas Backstrom.

Backstrom is now 34-years-old. He is also coming off major hip surgery this past offseason. Neither of those things are encouraging things to say when you are talking about remaining a top level player in hockey.

I will not come out here and lie and say Backstrom has been horrible. He hasn’t been. He has 29 points in the 39 games he has played this season. Not too bad. That is a .74 points per game,  well below his career average of .96, but still very good.

He is still contributing. Many, many hockey players wish they could be doing what Backstrom is doing. But you can see his decline. He looks pretty slow out there most nights. He is thirty-four. He won’t be getting faster. Over the next several seasons that speed will likely get slower and to make things worse the hands will start to go as well. It’s just the way it is. I don’t make the rules of life unfortunately.

Backstrom is still a very good player. He is still a top six center on an NHL team. But if the Capitals had traded Kuznetsov and went with a different center option, this team could have been a lot worse.