Washington Capitals Nicklas Backstrom signs with Dynamo Moscow of KHL -NHL Lockout Update
Reuniting with his team captain, the Washington Capitals centre player, Nicklas Backstrom has signed on with Dynamo Moscow of the Russian, Kontinental Hockey League, according to a report by Swedish news outlet SVT Sport.
The young forward is reportedly already on his way to Russia as sources say he left Thursday evening, joining Alex Ovechkin, who had signed on with the club earlier during the lockout.
Backstrom, a 24-year-old native of Gavle, Sweden, was drafted by the Washington Capitals as the fourth overall during round-one of the 2006 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft and has been with them ever since. He is still under contract with the Capitals
to a 10-year, $67 million deal, which was signed on prior to the 2010-2011 regular season and will make him an unrestricted free agent in 2020.
“Ovechkin’s been calling since he came to Moscow,” Backstrom told Swedish news agency SVT. “It’ll be fun.”
“I want to play hockey and this will be a fun challenge,” added Backstrom.
It is believed that Ovechkin had a major role in Backstrom making the decision to come and join the Dynamo Moscow, as he will be wearing 99 with the Russian club.
Backstrom has a career spread out over five seasons with the Washington Capitals, in which he played a total of 365 games, 101 goals and 266 assists for a total of 367 points and 184 minutes in penalty time. He also has an accumulated plus-minus rating of
positive 86 and was in the minus range for the first time in his career during the 2011-2012 regular season in which played in just 42 games and potted 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists).
The player also left on the day which had the labour union put forth three proposals to the league to end the lockout, but had all three of them rejected in the meeting that lasted a little over an hour at the NHL offices in New York.
Backstrom has become the fifth player to have left in order to continue playing overseas in Europe and could be there for a while as the Dynamo Moscow is now packed with talent.
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