Niklas Backstrom Injury: Wild Goaltender To Undergo Ankle Surgery

Though the Minnesota Wild sit on the sidelines while the Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin, there's still pertinent news. What could be of importance as the season just comes to an end? Surgery to a major player on the team, that's what. The Pioneer Press is reporting that Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom will have surgery within the next two weeks to fix an ankle injury.

Backstrom was the primary goaltender for the Wild this past season, and posted a 19-18-7 record. He was much better than that final record indicates, however, as one of the only bright spots when the team had it's mid-season collapse, before crawling to the finish line over the final weeks. He posted a .919 save percentage with a 2.43 GAA, and had four shutouts on the season.

He's expected to make a full recovery, but he might not be the only player to get surgery. General manager Chuch Fletcher also said that "one or two other players" might need surgery, according to the piece from the Pioneer Press. On top of all of that, the team is hoping that Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse will be sufficiently recovered from serious concussions sooner rather than later.