Mikael Backlund returns for his 15th full season with the Calgary Flames and second as captain of the team. Flames fans have come accustomed to watching Backlund be the Flames shut down, second line centre for the majority of his time in Calgary. And that’s not going to change in the 2024-25 campaign.

Backlund is coming off a 15 goal, 39-point season in 2023-24 where he alongside Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane made up the most reliable line on the team. But Mangiapane is gone, which means Backlund is going to play with at least one new linemate this season.

With that in mind, what should Flames fans expect to see from the 35-year-old captain this season? Let’s take a look at three different outcomes.

This would be asking a lot of a 35-year-old veteran player, but it’s not like he’s never done this before in his career.

Backlund has produced at a 50+ point pace over 82 games four times in his career. The best production coming just two years ago in the 2022-23 season when he put up 56 points in 82 games. That came in a season under Darryl Sutter where Backlund was in a defensive, match-up role, on a team that had a hard time scoring. So it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that Backlund could have a similar season in 2024-25.

Something Flames fans might not be aware of is how many times Backlund has received votes for the Selke Trophy for the best defensive forward in the NHL. Backlund has received votes in the following seasons: 2023-24 (20th), 2022-23 (6th), 2021-22 (13th), 2019-20 (26th), 2018-19 (8th), 2017-18 (13th), 2016-17 (4th).

He’s finished between 4th – 26th across seven different seasons. That is very impressive for someone who doesn’t get talked about much outside Calgary.

His run of receiving Selke votes might be coming to an end because of the bad team he plays on and his age. But once again, it’s not completely out of the question for this to happen again.

At the age of 35 and playing in his 15th season, it’s difficult to see Backlund having one of the best years of his career. Especially when you consider that the Flames are not a very good team on paper. So what would be meeting expectations? What we saw from Backlund last season, is what we can expect to see from him this season. It’s fair for fans to expect Backlund to be the go-to guy when it comes to shutting down the best players on opposing teams and playing on the first penalty killing unit.

Fans should also expect Backlund to be a leader and take some young players under his wing. Backlund should help guys like Jakob Pelletier, Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, and Kevin Bahl get comfortable playing for the Flames and living in the city of Calgary like all good captains would do.

And the same could happen on the ice. Backlund has a history of helping young wingers have some of the best seasons of their career. Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane, Joe Colborne, Lance Bouma are all examples of players who have received the “Backlund bump.”

Could the Flames get the “Backlund bump” for someone like Pelletier or Coronato? It’s reasonable to see that from #11 this season.

Father time is undefeated when it comes to athletes. At some point Backlund is going to start to slow down. We all know that. But when is that going to happen? It could potentially be this season.

Backlund is 35 years old. He’ll be turning 36 on March 17th. Aging curves would suggest that NHL player performance start to decline when they hit the wrong side of 30. But luckily for the Flames and Backlund, it hasn’t happened yet. I would argue Backlund hasn’t slowed down at all in his thirties.

What will it look like if he slows down? First would be his offensive production being in the 25–30-point range over 82 games. His analytics take a hit. He starts to lose battles against the opposing top lines. If those things start to happen, then we’ll know Backlund has taken a step back and did not meet expectations for the season.

But he hasn’t shown Flames fans that he is heading in that direction just yet. Backlund takes great care of himself and regularly finishes in the top three of fitness testing.

I think Mikael Backlund is going to meet expectations this season. I see him continuing to be a 40–45-point player who plays on the top penalty-killing unit and shutting down opposition’s top players at 5-on-5. Backlund hasn’t given fans any reason to believe that he won’t be that player in the 2024-25 season. His age will eventually catch up with him, but it’s not going to be this upcoming season.