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Niklas Backstrom

#32 · Goalie · Calgary Flames

Born Feb 13, 1978 in Helsinki, FIN · 6'2", 192 lb · Catches left

Trophy case

William M. Jennings Trophy Goaltender(s) on Team with Fewest Goals Against 2006-07

Compare with a similar player

The goalies closest to him in games played in 2015-16. Pick one to see the two side by side, or choose someone else.

Anton Forsberg CBJ · 4 GP, 0.907 Christopher Gibson NYI · 4 GP, 0.882 Scott Wedgewood NJD · 4 GP, 0.957 Laurent Brossoit EDM · 5 GP, 0.873 Dustin Tokarski MTL · 6 GP, 0.878

Career

Regular season games only. Pick a season to see its game log below. Cap hit is what he counted against the salary cap that season, where it is known.

Games played by season. The darker bar is the season shown below.

Playoffs

Playoff games only. Pick a season to see that year's bracket.

2015-16 season totals

Contract

His cap hit for the whole season, set against what he did in the regular season. Lower is better value. In a season still being played the cost per point starts high and falls as the games add up. He rated at or below a spare-part player, so there is no cost per goal to show.

The contract

Who signed him to it, and when, are not on record. It runs through 2015-16, so this is its last season, after which he is an unrestricted free agent.

Each season left on the contract. Only its cap hit and its end are known: how the pay is split by season, and any signing bonus, are not.

Contracts he has signed

Every contract on record for him, newest first, with the team that signed him to it and the day it was signed. The one covering 2015-16 is marked. An extension is signed while the contract before it is still running, often a year ahead. A row with no team or date is a contract known only by its cap hit, most often one signed since October 2024.

2015-16 analytics

Rating

The goals he saved for his team, compared with a spare-part goalie facing the same shots. A goalie's season is about one-third the goalie and two-thirds chance, so read one year lightly. He has played fewer than 20 games, too few to be ranked. Before 2023-24 the NHL timed events less exactly, and differently from rink to rink, so expected goals for this season are rougher than for recent ones.

Shots faced

Expected goals adds up how likely each shot he faced was to go in, judged by where it came from, what kind of shot it was and whether it was a rebound. A goalie who lets in fewer than that has saved goals above expected. Only shots taken while he was in net count, and the league's goalies as a whole come out at zero. Before 2023-24 the NHL timed events less exactly, and differently from rink to rink, so expected goals for this season are rougher than for recent ones. What these numbers mean

Each bar shows the share of goalies he is ahead of, among the 57 who played at least a quarter as much as the busiest this season.

The goals he was expected to let in and the goals he did, as the season went on. When the allowed line runs below the expected line, he is saving more than his shots were worth.

Where he was shot at

Every unblocked attempt he faced this season, with his net on the right. There is a dot for each attempt, bigger for a better chance. "Show as heat map" shades the ice by where the attempts came from. Click a goal for its details.

Game log