Wild to dress 51-year-old goalie vs preds

[germany00]

Paul Deutsch will enjoy a night to remember Wednesday.

Due to personal reasons, Niklas Backstrom, who was the scheduled starter for the Minnesota Wild's game against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night, will not be in attendance.

Houston Aeros goaltender Matt Hackett was recalled and quickly boarded a flight to the Twin Cities, but he's not expected to touch down on the biggest travel day of the year until about 6:30 p.m. CT.

In need of a backup for Josh Harding, the Wild signed Deutsch, a 51-year-old who runs a screen printing and embroidery store in Richfield, Minn., as the emergency goaltender. As per League rules, the Wild were forbidden from signing a goalie with professional experience, so Deutsch signed his ATO on Wednesday.

Deutsch is a good friend of former assistant Mike Ramsey and has been used in many practices when one of the top goalies gets an off day.

Coincidentally, Deutsch was already going to be at the game Wednesday night as a fan, along with a youth hockey team he was accompanying. Now, those players are going to likely see him take warm-ups with the Wild.

 

[NV]

That's fuckin awesome

 

[germany00]

wonder how he's gonna do lol

 

[germany00]

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=137296

watch that lol

 

[snipezo]

lmao that's amazing

 

[germany00]

the guy started playing goalie at 37

 

[snipezo]

Man, imagine if Harding got injured? Holy crap lol.

 

[germany00]

i have a feeling the guy wouldve been lit up lol. from playing in a senior league to the NHL? he just wouldnt be ready for it. But i didnt see him play so i dunno lol

 

[playmaker7]

Haha please let him get some game action. That would be a nice story for real.

 

[Teagz]

It would be so awesome if he got game action. Could possibly be one of the best stories of the year.

 

[RipCity32]

That's pretty fucking sweet.