Manny Fernandez or Dwayne Roloson?
Roloson or Fernandez?
With both veteran goaltenders coming to the end of their contracts and theoretically on the verge of unrestricted free agency last season, the Wild made its choice.
Fernandez signed a $13 million, three-year extension last March, a few days before the Wild, destined to miss the playoffs again, sent Roloson to the Edmonton Oilers.
Roloson played well for the Oilers as the playoffs continued before he suffered a knee injury in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals against Carolina and missed the rest of the series. Convinced they finally had solved their goaltending woes, the Oilers signed Roloson to a new deal in the offseason.
All that said, the Wild made the right choice in going with Fernandez, now 32.
Though the Wild has opened it up a bit this season – in part to unleash Marian Gaborik, one of the league’s top talents and allow him to earn his $5 million salary, and also take advantage of the acquisition of Pavol Demitra – Fernandez still is posting stingy numbers in the net.
He has a 1.57 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage, and only once had allowed as many as three goals in his 10 starts. He had played every game for the Wild, which faces the Avalanche tonight in Denver.
This hasn’t been talked about much, but Fernandez was a 1992 Quebec draft choice, when he was playing major junior with Laval. In February 1994, though, while Fernandez still was with Laval, the Nordiques sent his rights to Dallas for Tommy Sjodin and a 1994 draft choice.
Quebec used that pick to take a Connecticut prep school player named Chris Drury.
