Niklas Bäckström appreciation thread

[forthewild]

He was a great goalie for us, he played very well and won us many games on his performance alone. Its a shame that injuries destroyed him so fast, his durability went down the drain as well and the massive contract he got didn't help the matters much.

Thank you for all the memories Backstrom, thank you for your time and good luck to you going forward.

 

[Randy BoBandy]

I will miss the Backstrom of 5 years ago, he was good. Goodluck bud!!!

 

[DANOZ28]

at 6 mill i thought he was slightly overpaid however he was a terrific goalie for many years. i just feel he should have retired if he wasn't 100% before his last contract. thx 4 the memories backs!

 

[Engebretson]

I met Backstrom at an event for my old company many years ago. Nice guy and he even gave me an autograph.

Good luck in the future, Backs.

 

[00xtremeninja]

was his rookie season when I just started watching Wild hockey and getting more into it, guy was solid and sucks the injuries piled up, but such is life.

Best of luck in Calgary.

 

[AJ Thelen]

Those highlight videos of Bäckstrom have some pretty awesome saves in them. I had all forgotten about his sick glovehand. That kind of play is a delight to watch, compared to Duby who is just big as a house and is basically just standing in the way. (Im not saying Dubs is ****, just boring)

 

[Jarick]

Hard to get nostalgic over a player who screwed his own team over two summers in a row. Should have left after his last contract.

 

[Lapa]

Didn't Bäckström have surgery in the summer? How did he screw the team over?

 

[Jarick]

He waited to have the surgery until the recovery time would last through the buyout period. If he had the surgery earlier, he could have been cleared in time.

 

[Wild11MN]

Didn't Bäckström have surgery in the summer? How did he screw the team over?

I thought he knew he wouldn't play in the second half of the year and really got injured in like January or so, and then delayed the surgery until after the season was over. But I thought I remembered reading something about Fletcher deciding not to shut him down early. Someone else may remember the specifics better.

 

[Engebretson]

Hard to get nostalgic over a player who screwed his own team over two summers in a row. Should have left after his last contract.

If I'm remembering right, he was about our only option for a netminder when he signed his current contract (Harding had just been diagnosed with MS and I don't recall any other decent goalies on the FA market), although he knew that and leveraged the situation into his current contract.

 

[Poacher]

Thank you Backs, your my all time favorite wild goalie.

 

[Minnesota]

Hard to get nostalgic over a player who screwed his own team over two summers in a row. Should have left after his last contract.

That's a very short-sighted way of looking at Backstrom's 9 year career with the Wild.

 

[57special]

Hard to get nostalgic over a player who screwed his own team over two summers in a row. Should have left after his last contract.

I'm with you. How much money does he need?

 

[Bruce Granville]

If you don't have anything nice to say, [mod] don't say anything at all.
This is an appreciation thread.