In life, folks, there are some constants. Things will always cost too much. You’ll always be waiting for a bus or a train or an elevator for way longer than you want to. And Mikael Backlund will always be a really effective, reliable player for the Calgary Flames.

In 2025-26, the Flames had a weird, pretty rough year. They went through some significant changes. But Backlund? He just kept doing his thing and giving the Flames a ton of value and leadership from their captain.

Here’s a look at #11’s latest season in red.

Way, way back in 2007, the Flames traded back in the first round of the NHL Draft. They added a third-round pick – they used it to select blueliner John Negrin – and they ended up selecting Swedish centre Mikael Backlund at 24th overall.

Backlund’s development was uneven. He was used sporadically in 2008-09 with his Swedish club team, leading to his departure and mid-season move to the Western League’s Kelowna Rockets later that season. When he went pro, much of the first few years were split between the NHL and AHL, figuring out what parts of his game could translate and what needed to be tinkered.

After fits and starts, and some injuries that slowed down his progression, Backlund found his level in 2013-14, the first full season after the lockout. He was consistently used against the other team’s best players and was able to consistently suppress their scoring. Gradually, the Flames coaches began giving Backlund skilled wingers – his line had the puck all the time, so might as well give him linemates that could score – and his counting stats had a nice uptick, too.

Regardless of the state of the rest of the team, Backlund’s gig since around 2013 has been to be the team’s tough-minutes centre. He gets a steady diet of defensive zone starts, penalty kill shifts, and match-ups against the other team’s aces – especially at home – and his role is to eat up the rough deployments so everyone else can have an easier go of it.

When the 2025-26 season began, Backlund was 36 years old. He turned 37 on St. Patrick’s Day. His primary linemate was Blake Coleman, who turned 34 in November. They were joined by a rotation of wingers on the shutdown line: Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Yegor Sharangovich, Joel Farabee and Sam Honzek. The common thread? Young wingers who were rounding out their two-way game. Farabee and Honzek really seemed to click in checking roles during their stints with them.

Facing some of the most defensive-zone skewed deployments of any shutdown centre in the league, Backlund had 17 goals and 26 assists for 43 points. He was plus-7 on a team with a minus-47 goal differential. He was a key part of a penalty kill that was a consistent bright spot of the Flames’ outings. (He probably won’t show up on many Selke Trophy ballots because of the way the Flames’ season went… but maybe he should given how skewed his minutes were and how effective he was.)

More importantly, on a team dealing with an on-ice regression following a superb 2024-25 campaign and that had to navigate the departures of Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar mid-season – and Jonathan Huberdeau missing the final quarter of the season with hip surgery – Backlund proved adept at helping his team navigate some choppy waters in his third season as captain.

To be completely blunt: in 2025-26, Backlund was Backlund. On and off the ice, in a rough season, he was a stabilizing presence and gave the team what they needed to keep things moving forward.

Backlund signed a two year extension with the Flames last fall. He’ll be 37 when the 2026-27 season begins and he’ll be 39 when he completes his current deal at the end of 2027-28. Barring anything derailing his progress, he’ll surpass Jarome Iginla for the Flames’ all-time games played lead sometime in March – he’ll tie him with his 71st appearance of the season and pass him with his 72nd.

At some point Father Time will probably catch up with Backlund… right? He’s bound to slow down physically at some point. We all do. The good thing for the Flames is there’s a bunch of young centres coming up in the next few years, and Backlund seems like the ideal mentor for them: someone who’s gone through some bumps in the developmental process and can provide some perspective on sticking with it. As his game potentially diminishes, there are players that can potentially take over some of the heavy lifting he does.

Plus, he’s a really smart, savvy player. The things he’s good at do not rely on quick feet or quick hands. He may slow down over the next season or two (or three or four), but we wouldn’t expect the bottom to completely drop out of his game.

Backlund is one of the most important players in franchise history. We’re expecting the Flames’ Swedish king to remain the king for awhile yet.