Last March when the Flyers signed Swedish goaltender Johan Backlund, they figured his season would be an adjusting one mostly spent will the A'Dack Phantoms of the AHL. However when injuries riddled the Flyers goaltending staff and starter Michael Leighton went down mixed with the awful play of Brian Boucher, Backlund was called on.
His 1st start was an odd one, on March 27th. His play was stellar letting in 2 goals on 24 shots versus a solid offensive in Pittsburgh. A sigh on relief came from Flyers nation as hope that they had found a goalie not named Boucher to carry them into the Playoffs. Going into the game Backlund had been battling groin problems, that seemed to out weight his undescribably desire to play. And at the start of the 3rd Boucher took over in net and the Flyers went on to lose 4-1.
In the lost Flyers Nation gained hope and were counting down the days until Backlund would be able to play again. GM Paul Holmgren was also impressed and expressed much interest to re-sign the soon to be 29 year old rookie.
Backlund played played 10 years of professional hockey back in Sweden, spending 4 seasons and playing over 200 games in the Swedish Elite League. In Adirondack, the Flyers AHL affiliate, Johan played 41 games posting 21 wins and 17 losses and a 2.79 GAA.
The assumption is that Backlund will compete for the starting job this season. The question is who will he be competing against? Michael Leighton is still an UFA and Brian Boucher has one year left on his contract. The contract was said to be a 2 year contract which will be key to his development and adjustment to North American Hockey.
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