Report: Flames to lose another core player

According to a report in his native Sweden, Calgary Flames forward Mikael Backlund will NOT be signing a contract extension with the team this offseason, making next season his final season with the team.

In Swedish magazine VLT, Backlund said it was a "difficult decision" not to re-sign with the team and that he took his time making his mind up.

The 34 year old center has played his entire 14 year NHL career with the Flames, amassing 185 goals and 492 points in 908 career regular season games. If he does indeed leave the Flames after this season he'll join the likes of Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau and Tyler Toffoli all as players who have made the split in the past calendar year. There's speculation that Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm are both likely to leave as soon as possible, as well.