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Niklas Backstrom puts the paddle down to make a save during the Minnesota Wild's 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

Friday, November 13, 2009 1:49 PM

The loophole that landed Backstrom

James Mirtle

We caught a rare glimpse of the Wild this week in Toronto as they picked up a 5-2 win on the Leafs, looking far better than their 7-10-1 record in doing so. And in the process of putting together a story comparing the routes Minnesota netminder Niklas Backstrom and Jonas Gustavsson took to the NHL, I came across the full story behind just how Backstrom landed with the Wild in 2006.

For one, the Wild management were trying to trade then-No. 1 Manny Fernandez as far back as a full year before he was eventually unloaded to Boston in the summer of 2007. They wanted Josh Harding to get more playing time in net, and Fernandez’s attitude issues (and $4.33-million salary) would be a casualty.

The problem was that they wanted to bring in a veteran goaltender who might end up shouldering the load with Harding (then only 22 but considered the future in goal) but couldn’t carry three goaltenders without having to place the third netminder on waivers.

Ultimately, the Wild brass figured out that the only way they could have an experienced third goaltender was to look to Europe, as those players without NHL experience can be demoted without requiring placement on waivers regardless of their age. They originally targeted Fredrik Norrena, then a 31-year-old veteran in the Elitserien, but on the recommendation of scout Thomas Steen, settled on the 28-year-old Backstrom, who had sparkling numbers in Finland in what’s considered a lower quality league than those in Sweden and Russia.

In Backstrom’s first NHL training camp, he started as Fernandez’s backup when Harding went down with a groin pull. The veteran Finn then took over when the No. 1 goalie hurt his knee in January. He went 19-3-1 down the stretch to help his team sneak into the playoffs as the seventh seed; Fernandez was dumped for a fourth-rounder and a marginal prospect at the end of the year and, three years later, Harding has still yet to move into the No. 1 role.

Since he came into the league, Backstrom has a 100-53-23 record with an NHL-best .922 save percentage. His numbers are down this season as the Wild adapt to new coach Todd Richards, but Backstrom has been quite a find for someone who earned a spot thanks only to a waiver loophole and a team searching for a cheap option in goal.

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Eric Duhatschek

Eric Duhatschek

Eric was the winner of the Hockey Hall Of Fame's Elmer Ferguson award for "distinguished contributions to hockey writing" in 2001. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario's grad school of journalism, he began covering hockey in 1978 and after spending 20 years covering the NHL and the Calgary Flames, joined The Globe in 2000. Eric has covered four Winter Olympics, 19 Stanley Cup finals, every Canada Cup and World Cup since 1981, plus two world championships.

 
Allan Maki

Allan Maki

Allan joined The Globe in 1997 after spending 19 years as a reporter and columnist at the Calgary Herald. Born in Thunder Bay, he graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 1977. A past president of the Football Writers of Canada, Allan has covered every Grey Cup since 1980. He's been to seven Olympic Games and covered everything from rodeos to the World Series to the Super Bowl.

 

James Mirtle

James Mirtle joined The Globe as an editor and reporter in the sports department in 2005 and now covers the Toronto Maple Leafs. A graduate of Ryerson University and Thompson Rivers University, he has written about hockey from junior on up the past decade and has a background in new media, statistical analysis and blogging. You can follow him on Twitter here.

 

Matthew Sekeres

Matthew is The Globe's national sports correspondent in B.C., covering the Canucks, Lions and other sports happenings on the west coast. Montreal-born and Ottawa-raised, Matthew is a graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism. He has worked at four metropolitan dailies and for TSN. Matthew has covered the Beijing Olympics, three Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, nine Grey Cups and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

David Shoalts

A native of Wainfleet, Ont., David joined The Globe in 1984 as a layout and copy editor in the sports section. He attended the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. After graduating in 1978, he worked at the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and later the Toronto Sun. He has covered the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL since 1990 and became a hockey columnist in 2003.

 

Darren Yourk

Darren is the editor of globesports.com and host of the Hockey Roundtable podcast.