Wild still mum on Backstrom

by James Mirtle on Jan 15, 2009 3:36 PM CST Comment 7 comments

I thought this was a pretty interesting quote from Wild GM Doug Risebrough:

In the past four seasons, Wild goaltenders have won the Roger Crozier Award for highest save percentage twice (Roloson, Backstrom) and the William Jennings Trophy for fewest goals once (Backstrom/Fernandez).

Risebrough gives credit to his goaltenders but also believes they benefit from the team's traditionally tight defense.

"I think the goalies feel there is an advantage," he said. "We're consistently in the lowest goals-against in the league. Ultimately, you only get there by having good goaltending and focused defensive play. At the end of the day, no goalie can take on the barrage of all kinds of shots."

I talked about this at length last week and took quite a bit of flack from Wild fans for it. Look, I'm not saying that Backstrom's not a good goalie — he is, and he deserves to be at the all-star game given his first-half performance.

But his numbers are incredible. Among goaltenders with at least 100 regular-season games played, Backstrom has the highest career save percentage in NHL history:

Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	GP	SV%
1	Niklas Backstrom	2007	2009	MIN	134	0.924
2	Dominik Hasek	1991	2008	4Tm	735	0.922
3	Roman Cechmanek	2001	2004	2Tm	212	0.919
4	Roberto Luongo	2000	2009	3Tm	509	0.919
5	Cristobal Huet	2003	2009	4Tm	204	0.918
6	Henrik Lundqvist	2006	2009	NYR	232	0.916
7	Tim Thomas	2003	2009	BOS	190	0.916
8	Ilya Bryzgalov	2002	2009	2Tm	159	0.915
9	Jean-Sebastien Giguere	1997	2009	3Tm	440	0.915

As an unrestricted free agent, that's worth big money and big term and I'd be incredibly leery about committing like that to a netminder who has benefitted from a great system.

The proof? Wild backup Josh Harding's career save percentage would fit in at fifth on this list had he played 100 games. He's also just starting his career and is going to improve.

He's also seven years younger than Backstrom and is likely to be at least $3.5-million a season cheaper. You also don't have to commit long term.

To me, it's a no-brainer.

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So is the arguement that Lundqvist and Thomas are only as good as they are because of their system, too? I only use those names because the others played for different teams. And is the suggestion that if Backstrom goes to a different team, he is suddenly not as good?

I don’t want to tell you that you are completely off base. I get the money part of it. Maybe Backs isn’t worth $6 million per, but I also don’t think he would ask for it. Is Lundqvist worth $6.8 million per? Is Thomas, since his deal is up at the end of the year too? Do they win that many games for the Rangers? Do they keep their teams in the game like Backstrom does?

I just dread to see the Wild let Backs go and watch Harding flounder.

Besides, Risebrough has yet to show he would use the money saved by not signing Backstrom to bring in offense. He also has yet to show he can sign a free agent like Backstrom, or any free agent of consequence for that matter. I don’t trust Risebrough to make the determination as to whether the lows GA is due to the Goalie or the system. He is more than likely trying to play the PR game. telling us it is the system not the free agent super star.

The only way to avoid failure, is to learn from it.

by BReynolds on Jan 15, 2009 7:19 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Backstrom’s due a contract at least the size of Huet’s. Likely larger.

Honestly, as I said earlier, with all of the high-profile goalies with bad contracts, at some point teams are going to be gun shy about signing those. If Backstrom will sign for less than $5-million a season and at a term of three years or less, by all means do it, but there’s no way his agent’s going to let him do that.

by James Mirtle on Jan 15, 2009 7:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

At some point, someone’s going to notice that the Red Wings get by with about $2 million worth of goaltending.

by J. Michael Neal on Jan 15, 2009 11:02 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Risebrough’s problems should probably cost him his job at some point, but it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t let Backstrom walk. Interesting argument here to be sure, but I’ve seen a lot of goalies re-signed by their teams recently and have their teams regret the decision. Unless a goalie is ridiculously spectacular, letting him cash in elsewhere seems to be a good option. Lundqvist is a pretty darn good goalie… his contract might be inflated, but young stars are getting that money at every other position so I guess it makes some sense in that light.

There needs to be a Sask-born starting goalie, though. So I’m very biased in my thoughts on the matter.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Jan 15, 2009 7:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Lundqvist and Thomas aren’t fair comparisons because their teams haven’t been churning out great goaltending stats regardless of who has been in net for the last few years.

Now, would you sign Clemmensen to a big deal after his current stint? No, because a large part of that success is New Jersey’s system.

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by PPP on Jan 16, 2009 9:07 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Harding

James,

We touched on it on our blog the other day. Why has Harding’s workload been cut down so much this season? I think it is a question certainly worth asking. Especially considering the Wild’s lack of scoring up front and their over-reliance on netminding and defensive play to succeed this season.

To me, it could either be them trying to get every last ounce of sweat out of Backstrom before letting him go, or they feel Backstrom is that much better than Harding and will allow them to snag that eighth playoff spot.

by Illegal Curve on Jan 15, 2009 8:23 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

It’s a good question. Backstrom hasn’t had many poor starts, so perhaps it makes sense to keep going with him. I honestly think Harding could handle the starting role, however.

by James Mirtle on Jan 15, 2009 10:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

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