Niklas Backstrom Swatch Card

The Minnesota Wild are currently mired in what seems like their worst slump of the season, at the worst time possible. For a while, as the team was on top of the Western Conference standings, all the talk was about how Bruce Boudreau is an amazing regular-season coach, how acquiring Eric Staal gave the team the best depth in the league - and perhaps the best center line in the NHL as well. And Devan Dubnyk was the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy.

All that got me thinking about the history of goaltending in Minnesota. With his second Vezina-caliber season in three years, Dubnyk is showing signs of eventually becoming the best goalie in franchise history, a spot that is currently reserved for Niklas Backstrom.

Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson also deserve some credit, and José Theodore's season in Minny wasn't too shabby (15-11-3, 2.71 GAA and .916 save percentage in 32 games), but all things being equal, Dubnyk and Backstrom rule the Wild era of hockey in the State of Hockey. They come out ahead of the likes of Sebastian Bach's brother Zac Bierk, a soon-to-be-retired Ilya Bryzgalov, John Curry, Wade Dubielewicz, Derek Gustafson, Matt Hackett, Josh Harding (he who had multiple sclerosis), Anton Khudobin, Dieter Kochan, ego-driven Darcy Kuemper, and Jamie McLennan.

Lest we forget, however, that the Minnesota North Stars have had some decent netminders as well, including Miracle On Ice goalies Jim Craig and one-gamer Steve Janaszak, All-Stars Gump Worsley and Don Beaupre, Stanley Cup finalists Gilles Meloche and Jon Casey, Canadian Olympian Ken Broderick, Gary Edwards, Gilles Gilbert, WHA superstar Jean-Louis Levasseur, franchise record-holder Cesare Maniago, Roland Melanson, and a list of lesser-known athletes such as Gary Bauman, Daniel Berthiaume, Brian Hayward, losses specialist and record-holder Pete LoPresti, Markus Mattson, Lindsay Middlebrook, Jarmo Myllys, minor-league minute-muncher Fern Rivard, Mike Sands, Gary Smith, Finnish Olympian Kari Takko, Darcy Wakaluk, and Carl Wetzel.

And before all that was Hockey Hall Of Famer Frank Brimsek.

In addition to Brimsek, the following goalies from Minnesota are in the U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame: Sam Lopresti, Jack McCartan, Larry Ross, Willard Ikola and Mike "Lefty" Curran.

So, in the grand scheme of things, my all-time ranking of Minnesota goalies would look like such:

1. Brimsek
2. Backstrom
3. Dubnyk (would move into #2 with a Vezina win or upon setting Wild career records)
4. Maniago
5. Beaupre

Which brings me to this beautiful card of Backstrom's, from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It's #71 in the series, showing him wearing the Wild's white uniform, beautifully capturing the uniform's red and green highlights; it contains a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Niklas Backstrom: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

I got not one but a couple of tremendous returns today - both from Minnesota, coincidentally! Here's the first one:

How cool is that? Niklas Backstrom was one of the best and most consistent goalies in the NHL from 2006 until the end of the locked-out season in 2012-13. Before crossing the Atlantic, however, the Finn of Swedish descent had dominated the Finnish Elite League, leading his team Oulun Kärpät to two straight championships and winning the best goalie award and playoff MVP title twice in the process.

After winning a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics and bronze at the 2006 World Championships with Team Finland, he signed with the Minnesota Wild as a free agent and started the 2006-07 season as Manny Fernandez' backup, inheriting the #1 mantle when Fernandez fell to injury, and not letting it go until injuries forced him to share duties with Josh Harding in 2013-14, as he was limited to 21 games.

He represented the Wild in an All-Star Game, holds the team's career (189 and counting) and season (37) wins records as well as single-season shutout record (8), was nominated for a Vezina, and won two more bronze medals (2008 World Championships and 2010 Olympics) with Finland, playing behind the best goalie of his generation in Miikka Kiprusoff. He also won the Jennings (best team GAA) and Crozier (best save percentage) trophies in 2006-07.

Backstrom has a near-perfect technique, a blend of the already-excellent stand-up/covering-the-angles style he used in Europe and the improved butterfly he picked up in North America; a fearless, fierce and focused competitor, his only imperfection is the 5-hole (between the legs), which he counters by making up for in positioning.

Here he is in the Wild's red (home) uniform:

The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Collector's Choice (card #74 in the set) and shows him following the puck as it moves from behind the net to the corner, sharp and attentive; the card on the right is from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (#128 in the collection, part of the Stars Of The Game sub-set), and has a great view of the Wild's main logo on his mask - a nice way to get around copyright issues for ITG.

The Wild also have an alternate home uniform, in green, with a College-style cursive font in front, as seen in this 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee card (#478 in the collection) by UD:

I like that OPC tried to re-create similar designs to those of my youth, but the un-matching colour schemes tend to make me nauseous a bit; the light blue could have easily been dark green to fit, or even just plain black.

                                 (continued in the following post)

Niklas Backstrom: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

               (continued from the previous post)

While I used to prefer their red uniform, I am now a bigger fan of the Minnesota Wild's white (away) jerseys; the colour combinations work and complement each other very well, and combined with the white Vaughn  equipment, combines to give goalies a ''totally classic'' look and feel:

  Pictured on the left is a sticker from Panini's 2008-09 Panini sticker book (#218), which shows both the team's logo and a nice angle of Niklas Backstrom's old mask, which carries the team's former shoulder logo on the forehead; on the right is card #125 from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SP Authentic set, an always a sober-looking, white-dominant design that autographs look great on. Notice the different shoulder patches on that one, and the chest patch commemorating the team's 10th anniversary.

It also has a clear view of his usual stance, very modern - the glove facing inwards and completely upwards is a pet peeve of mine, but hey, I haven't been nominated for a Vezina, so whatever works for him is fine by me.

I had sent him these 5 items and a fan letter on March 3rd, 2014, and they took 142 days to get back to me, which brings us to July 23rd, 2014. They were all signed in black sharpie, with his jersey number (32) tagged at the end. He actually re-signed with the Wild last year and has 2 more years left at a cap hit just over $3M per season, just about half of what he earned in his previous deal.