Wild Find Replacement, Sign Theodore

  The Minnesota Wild and veteran Jose Theodore have agreed to a one-year contract worth $1.1 million on Saturday.

  Theodore’s signing comes just days after the season ending ACL and MCL tear of backup goaltender Josh Harding in pre-season action against the St. Louis Blues. Harding was looking forward to a great season with the Wild, but when teammate Greg Zanon checked Blues’ forward Brad Boyes onto his leg, his season was over before it even began.

  The aftermath left questions buzzing as to if and who the Wild might replace Harding with, just a week before the start of the regular season.

  Two names stood out firm in Thomas Greiss of San Jose, and unrestricted free-agent Jose Theodore as my counterpart Dustin pointed out in his article just days ago, Harding’s hopes crushed; Who gets the call?.

  Theodore won the race for one of the only (coveted) available spots in net after sitting jobless since the end of last year when his two-year contract with the Washington Capitals ran out.

"Jose's a veteran who's won 245 games in the NHL," said General Manager Chuck Fletcher in a hotel lobby in Helsinki. "We're fortunate he was still available. He makes us a deeper team and we have a terrific one-two punch again.”

  Theodore was 30-7-7 with a 2.81 goals-against average, a .911 save percentage and one shutout in 47 games for Washington last season. He also won the Bill Masterton Trophy (perseverance) surrounding the tragic loss of his two month old son who was born premature and suffered from complications until his death.

  The 34-year-old Theodore is sixth among active NHL goalies in career games and victories. In 548 games split between Montreal, Colorado, and Washington Theodore has a 245-221-22 record with 29 shutouts. Theodore has two NHL All-Star appearances and one Second NHL All-Star appearance. Although he’s never won a Cup to this date, Theodore had a glorious season in 2001-02 where he led the league with a .931 save percentage, and won the Vezina and Hart Memorial Trophies as the clear-cut best goalie in the NHL.

  Though Theodore is past his prime, he still is a great goaltender in the National Hockey League and proved it behind a shaky Capitals defense last year. He will provide a powerful one-two punch in net for the Wild this coming season behind Niklas Backstrom as Josh Harding recovers, and prospect Anton Khudobin grows in the minors.

- Kendall Grubbs