Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher tells ESPN.com that goaltender Niklas Backstrom is 100-percent healthy after undergoing sports hernia surgery just days after the season ended.
Fletcher has said in the recent weeks that finding a No. 1 goaltender for the 2013 season is the top off-season priority. At this point, Backstrom, who becomes an unrestricted free agent next month, seems like the best option.
“We’ve had some conversations with his representation, and had a good meeting with Niklas before he went back to Finland,” Fletcher told ESPN.com. “I think clearly he would like to come to back to Minnesota. We certainly would like to have him back. So the will is there from both parties. Now we just have to find a way, with respect to term and the cap and how do we manage all of that.”
As Michael Russo reported on Tuesday, the Wild has about $6.2 million dollars in cap space.
