With the NHL lockout firmly in place, it looks like members of the Minnesota Wild are scattering to make a buck. Today, word that goalie Niklas Backstrom signed with Russia’s Dynamo Minsk team. Backstrom is expected to join the team this weekend.
Meanwhile, the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo writes that scads of NHL players are working out the St. Louis Park Center, and will hire refs to give a bit of structure to their scrimmages.
In St. Paul, businesses that rely on the foot traffic that Wild home games generate are already bracing for the lockout, according to the Star Tribune. When the NHL season was wiped out by a lockout back in 2004-05, city leaders say that cost St. Paul an estimated $60 million.
