The Anaheim Ducks announced on Monday afternoon that the club has signed Swedish goalie Viktor Fasth to a one-year contract. While the team did not announce any financial terms, TSN's Darren Dreger reports the deal is worth $1 million and is a one-way contract.Fasth, 29, has spent his entire career playing in the Swedish Elite League and has been named the league's goalie of the year in each of the past two seasons. According to the Ducks press release, he's the first goalie to win that award in consecutive seasons since current Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist did it back in 2001 and 2002.
So that's some pretty good company.
Here is a quick look at some of his past work from Sweden.
These are the types of low-risk, high-reward moves that tend to work out for teams when it comes to finding goalies. There is a pretty solid list of players at the position that have bounced around the minor leagues or European leagues only to sign in their mid-to-late 20s and become quality NHL netminders (Niklas Backstrom, Tim Thomas and Anaheim's current goalie, Jonas Hiller, all come to mind).
Does that mean Fasth is destined for NHL stardom? Of course not, and he could just as easily be the next Jonas Gustavsson (sorry, Toronto). But it's not a bad gamble for a team to take, especially when they already have a pretty good starter (Hiller) under contract for another two seasons.
Goalies are a frustrating beast for general managers to conquer, and sometimes you just never know where one is going to come from. It's often best to sign them and draft them late in bulk and see who emerges from the pile. That's why you very rarely see them go early in the draft.
Hiller received the bulk of the playing time this past season for Anaheim, appearing in 73 games. The Ducks used a trio of backups behind him that included Dan Ellis (10 games), Jeff Deslauriers (four games) and Iiro Tarkki (one game).
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