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Minnesota Wild: Top 10 Goalies in Franchise History

By Cody Defoe

ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 17: John Curry #33 of the Minnesota Wild warms up prior to the game against the Boston Bruins on December 17, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 17: John Curry #33 of the Minnesota Wild warms up prior to the game against the Boston Bruins on December 17, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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VANCOUVER, CANADA – MARCH 14: Jose Theodore #60 of the Minnesota Wild looks at the Vancouver Canucks’ bench in the game between the Minnesota Wild and the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on March 14, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /

#7 – Jose Theodore (2010-2011)

Way way back, in 2001-02, Jose Theodore won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s league MVP while he was a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Carey Price and Dominik Hasek are the only other goaltenders to accomplish that feat in the last 50+years.

You may be asking what this has to do with the Minnesota Wild, well, in 2010-11 Theodore tried to replicate that success as a backup for the State of Hockey. Theodore played in 32 games for the Wild, and put up his best statistical season in 8 years.

Theodore recorded 15 wins over 29 starts, posting a .916 Sv% and a 2.71 GAA while serving as the primary backup to Niklas Backstrom. Unfortunately, the Wild missed the playoffs in Theodore’s only season, but at no fault of his (or Backstroms’s) goaltending.

Theodore helped the team to finish the season with only 233 Goals Against, the lowest among Western Conference non-playoff teams, and good enough for 16th lowest in the league on the year.

Clearly, I hold Theodore to a high placement due in large part to his being a former league MVP. His performance in a single season as a backup with Minnesota may not have been spectacular, but it was enough to earn Jose a massive pay raise when he signed with Florida that offseason.

He has since retired, but his place among Wild goalies will always be written in that one fateful season he came to play for the red, green, and wheat.

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