Friends, two things can be true at the same time.

First and foremost: Mikael Backlund and Nazem Kadri are two of the most important players on the Calgary Flames roster. Secondly: Kadri turned 35 on Monday, while Backlund turned 36 on St. Patrick’s Day.

We need to discuss both sides of this coin, as it’s pretty crucial heading into the upcoming season to wrap our heads around this duality.

Backlund is the longest-tenured Flame and the club’s captain. He’s been a regular presence with the team since 2009-10 and one of the better two-way players in the league for over a decade. He’s not exactly a sniper, but his line consistently is relied upon to shut down the opposition and/or out-score them, usually in what are known as “tough minutes” situations – deployments starting in the defensive end of the ice, usually against the other team’s top two forward lines.

While Backlund is the team’s defensive conscience, Kadri is their most reliable offensive centre. Backlund starts in the defensive zone, which allows Kadri’s line to get the offensive zone deployments better attuned to his scoring prowess. While Kadri’s no defensive liability, he’s such a strong player in the offensive zone that his usage is skewed that way, and he’s usually given linemates that can either crash and bang, or pass the puck, or both.

Simply put: Backlund is crucial to the Flames’ defensive game and Kadri’s equally crucial to their offensive game.

But both players are 35 or older, and the Flames don’t have anybody in-house that could immediately effectively replace them in the lineup. Yes, that’s probably a problem. In an ideal world, the Flames would have some up-and-coming centres to take on their roles, in a similar vein as they had Dustin Wolf in net, and they have Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz on the blueline, and Matt Coronato and Connor Zary on the wings.

While Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter are exciting young centres, they’ll need time to develop, and Morgan Frost is working on carving out a clear niche for himself within the Flames’ lineup after his mid-season acquisition in 2024-25. So for better or worse, Backlund and Kadri will be the team’s key centres for a while longer.

If you want to be a pessimist, yeah, it’s likely that as they are – as happens to us all – Backlund and Kadri will both probably slow down a bit and become a little bit more prone to injuries. If you want to be an optimist, there are things that Backlund and Kadri both do well that probably won’t be impacted too much by any slight reductions in mobility – Backlund’s defensive acumen, for instance, is as much about his knowledge about where to be on the ice as it is about how quickly he gets there, as is Kadri’s shot.

But the Flames are holding out hope that Backlund and Kadri can both continue to do their things and allow time for successors to emerge. Father Time is undefeated, and the Flames are betting that his impacts will be minimal for the next little while. Regardless of whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist, it is a bit of a gamble.

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