Nicklas Backstrom's Contract a Steal for Washington

In the not-too-distant future, we might be looking back at the contract extension signed by Nicklas Backstrom as one of the biggest steals in the NHL (if it's already not). The Capitals officially announced their "significant player announcement" on Monday morning, and to the surprise of no one, it was a contract extension for their top center. According to multiple media outlets, the deal will keep him in Washington for the next 10 years, and pay him $67 million. That's a yearly cap hit of $6.7 million.

It's a great deal for both sides. It's great for Backstrom because he's getting $67 million. It's great for Washington because Backstrom could have very easily made more based on the combination of his production to date, and the likelihood he'll continue to improve over the next couple of seasons (and there's no reason to believe that won't happen).

Here's a quick look at how his deal stacks up with some of the other recent long-term contracts signed by the games best young forwards: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Paul Stastny, Anze Kopitar, Eric Staal, Rick Nash, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

(Points per game are career totals, and all cap numbers come from NHLNumbers)

In terms of the cap hit, Backstrom falls right in between the deals signed by Kane and Toews in Chicago, and the Kopitar contract in Los Angeles. And it's significantly less than the deals signed by Rick Nash and Eric Staal over the past year. Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin are on a completely different level in more ways than one.

With Backstrom's contract wrapped up (he was set to be a restricted free agent this summer) the Capitals now have approximately $42 million committed to 13 players for the 2010-11 season, which should leave enough cap room to satisfy the need for a No. 2 center behind Backstrom, or the much-talked about stay-at-home-defenseman. Especially if they were willing to move one of their remaining restricted free agents, or winger Alexander Semin in an offseason deal.

As for the long-term outlook, the Capitals have their two-headed monster of Backstrom and Ovechkin signed through the 2021 season for a combined annual hit of $15.7. That's almost $3 million more than what Chicago committed to Kane/Toews, and just under $2 million less than what Pittsburgh has going to Crosby/Malkin.