Nicklas Bäckström

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SwedenSweden  Nicklas Bäckström Ice hockey player
Nicklas Bäckström
Date of birth November 23, 1987
place of birth Gävle , Sweden
size 183 cm
Weight 83 kg
position center
number # 19
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2006 , 1st round, 4th position
Washington Capitals
Career stations
until 2007 Brynäs IF
since 2007 Washington Capitals

Lars Nicklas Bäckström (born November 23, 1987 in Gävle ) is a Swedish ice hockey player . The center has played since 2007 with the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), which had selected him in fourth position in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft . There he developed into one of the best playmakers in the league, holding the franchise record for most assists at the Capitals . In the 2018 playoffs , he won the Stanley Cup with the team . With the Swedish national team , Bäckström won the gold medal at the 2006 and 2017 World Championships and the silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics .

Career

society

Nicklas Bäckström began his professional career in the Swedish Elitserien with his home team Brynäs IF in Gävle 2004. At that time he played for both the professional and the junior team, with the professionals without a point in 19 games. In the 2005/06 season center forward was able to improve his performance and he was elected Årets nykomling of the Elitserien. At this time, Bäckström was already considered one of the most promising talents and was ranked first in the European ranking of talent scouts from the National Hockey League , so that the Washington Capitals selected him in the first round as the fourth player in the entire 2006 NHL Entry Draft . However, the Swede did not immediately move to the Washington Capitals, but played another year in his home country and was able to increase his points yield in the Elitserien.

Bäckström in the jersey of HK Dynamo Moscow

In May 2007, the Washington Capitals announced that Bäckström had signed a three-year contract. He made it straight to the NHL squad and made his debut in the top division of North America at the beginning of the 2007/08 season . Over the course of the season he replaced the injured Michael Nylander as the center in the first row and was able to score a total of 69 points on Alexander Ovetschkin's side , which earned him the nomination for the NHL All-Rookie Team and the Calder Memorial Trophy as the best newcomer in the league brought in. In his second NHL season, the attacker was able to seamlessly build on his previous performances and with 22 hits and 66 assists he was the most offensively strong player of the Capitals . In the play-offs, too, Bäckström convinced with 15 points in 14 games, but could not prevent his team from being eliminated from the eventual Stanley Cup winner Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Following the season, he received the Viking Award for best Swedish player, becoming the second player in the Capitals jersey after Calle Johansson to receive this award.

The following season finished Bäckström with 101 points scorer, which made him the fourth best offensive player in the league. In the first round of the play-offs, the left-handed shooter managed a hat trick in the game against the Montreal Canadiens , with his last goal falling in overtime and thus deciding the game. In May 2010, his contract with the Capitals was extended by ten years with a reported total salary of $ 67 million. The following two seasons were less successful for the Swede with only 65 and 44 points respectively. During the lockout in the 2012/13 season , Bäckström played together with his teammate Ovetschkin for Dynamo Moscow in the Continental Hockey League .

In December 2014, the Swede managed another hat trick in the game against Tampa Bay Lightning . By contributing two assists in the game against the Boston Bruins in March 2015, Bäckström became the player with the most assists in the history of the Washington Capitals, overtaking Ovetschkin and Michal Pivoňka . He also ended the season with a total of 60 assists, leading this category across the league.

In January 2017, Bäckström made his 500th assist, becoming the tenth Swede in NHL history to reach this milestone. He was also the second fastest of his compatriots to achieve this mark; only Peter Forsberg needed fewer games .

In the 2018 playoffs , the attacker won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history with the Capitals . He became the third best scorer of the post-season behind Yevgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Ovetschkin . In January 2020, he signed a new five-year contract in Washington, which should earn him an average annual salary of 9.2 million US dollars starting with the 2020/21 season.

International

In April 2006, Bäckström made his debut for the Swedish national team in the game against Norway . At the 2006 World Cup , he became the youngest Swede to ever take part in a World Ice Hockey Championship. When his team won the gold medal, the attacker played a total of four games alongside Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzén .

At the 2006 Winter Olympics , Bäckström was the strongest offensive player within the Swedish team with a total of six points, which, however, was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Slovakia .

Furthermore, Bäckström took part as part of the Swedish national team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi . On February 23, 2014, it was announced that he had tested positive in a doping test and was then excluded from the final against Canada . He is said to have slightly exceeded the limit values ​​of a substance contained in an allergy agent that Bäckström has been taking for years. In March 2014, Bäckström was awarded the silver medal retrospectively.

Furthermore, he represented his home country at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 , where he achieved third place with the team. This was followed by another gold medal at the 2017 World Cup .

Achievements and Awards

International

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
2001/02 Brynäs IF J18 Allsvenskan 2 0 0 0 0 - - - - -
2001/02 Brynäs IF SWE-U16 - - - - - 3 0 0 0 2
2003/04 Brynäs IF J20 SuperElit 21st 2 6th 8th 2 5 0 0 0 4th
2003/04 Brynäs IF J18 Allsvenskan 6th 9 5 14th 4th 3 0 3 3 0
2004/05 Brynäs IF J20 SuperElit 29 17th 17th 34 24 - - - - -
2004/05 Brynäs IF Elitserien 19th 0 0 0 2 - - - - -
2005/06 Brynäs IF Elitserien 46 10 16 26th 30th 4th 1 0 1 2
2006/07 Brynäs IF Elitserien 45 12 28 40 46 7th 3 3 6th 6th
2007/08 Washington Capitals NHL 82 14th 55 69 24 7th 4th 2 6th 2
2008/09 Washington Capitals NHL 82 22nd 66 88 46 14th 3 12 15th 8th
2009/10 Washington Capitals NHL 82 33 68 101 50 7th 5 4th 9 4th
2010/11 Washington Capitals NHL 77 18th 47 65 40 9 0 2 2 4th
2011/12 Washington Capitals NHL 42 14th 30th 44 24 13 2 6th 8th 18th
2012/13 HK Dynamo Moscow KHL 19th 10 15th 25th 10 - - - - -
2012/13 Washington Capitals NHL 48 8th 40 48 20th 7th 1 2 3 0
2013/14 Washington Capitals NHL 82 18th 61 79 54 - - - - -
2014/15 Washington Capitals NHL 82 18th 60 78 40 14th 3 5 8th 2
2015/16 Washington Capitals NHL 75 20th 50 70 36 12 2 9 11 8th
2016/17 Washington Capitals NHL 82 23 63 86 38 13 6th 7th 13 2
2017/18 Washington Capitals NHL 81 21st 50 71 46 20th 5 18th 23 6th
2018/19 Washington Capitals NHL 80 22nd 52 74 30th 7th 5 3 8th 4th
2019/20 Washington Capitals NHL 61 12 42 54 14th 5 0 1 1 0
J18 Allsvenskan total 8th 9 5 14th 4th 3 0 3 3 0
J20 SuperElit overall 50 19th 23 42 26th 5 0 0 0 4th
Elitserien total 110 22nd 44 66 78 11 4th 3 7th 8th
NHL overall 956 243 684 927 462 128 36 71 107 58

International

Represented Sweden at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
2005 Sweden U18 World Cup 3rd place, bronze 7th 2 3 5 4th
2006 Sweden U20 World Cup 5th place 6th 4th 3 7th 2
2006 Sweden WM 1st place, gold 4th 0 0 0 0
2007 Sweden U20 World Cup 4th Place 7th 0 7th 7th 20th
2007 Sweden WM 4th Place 9 1 5 6th 4th
2008 Sweden WM 4th Place 9 3 4th 7th 4th
2010 Sweden Olympia 5th place 4th 1 5 6th 0
2012 Sweden WM 6th place 2 0 1 1 0
2014 Sweden Olympia 2nd place, silver 5 0 4th 4th 0
2016 Sweden World cup 3rd place 4th 2 2 4th 2
2017 Sweden WM 1st place, gold 5 3 4th 7th 8th
Juniors overall 20th 6th 13 19th 26th
Men overall 42 10 25th 35 18th

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Commons : Nicklas Bäckström  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Prewitt: 'Boring' Nicklas Backstrom enjoyed another under-the-radar season. washingtonpost.com , May 17, 2015, accessed October 19, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Ian Oland: Nicklas Backstrom becomes 139th player in NHL history to register 500 assists. russianmachineneverbreaks.com, January 7, 2017, accessed January 10, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sweden furious about Backstrom ban due to allergy medication , London Free Press.
  4. ↑ Poyan Ansari: The medician defends Backstrom - He Took what what allowed. svt.se, February 23, 2014, accessed on February 23, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Swede Bäckström receives medal. Sport 1 , March 14, 2014, accessed April 5, 2014 .
Washington Capitals logo
Squad of the Washington Capitals in the season 2019/20

Goalkeeper: Braden Holtby  | Ilja Samsonow  
Defender: John Carlson  ( A ) | Brenden Dillon  | Radko Gudas  | Nick Jensen  | Michal Kempný  | Dmitri Orlov  | Jonas Siegenthaler  
attacker: Nicklas Bäckström  ( A ) | Travis Boyd  | Nic Dowd  | Lars Eller  | Carl Hagelin  | Garnet Hathaway  | Ilya Kovalchuk  | Yevgeny Kuznetsov  | TJ Oshie  | Alexander Ovechkin  ( C ) | Richard Pánik  | Jakub Vrána  | Tom Wilson  
Head Coach:  vacant      Assistant  Coach : Scott Arniel  | Reid Cashman  | Blaine Forsythe    General Manager:  Brian MacLellan

personal data
SURNAME Backström, Nicklas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Backstrom, Lars Nicklas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH Gävle , Sweden