Welcome to LWOS’ Summer Hockey Series, Best of the Rest. Plenty of sites do a version of a 30 greats in 30 days series, but this year we are doing something a little bit different. We want to look at the best player from each team who is not in the Hockey Hall Of Fame. In order to do this there are some rules. First the player must have been a significant part of this franchise (franchises include their time in a previous city… see Winnipeg/Atlanta) and must be retired for at least 3 years, making them Hall of Fame eligible. To see all the articles in the series, check out the homepage here.
The Minnesota Wild are a fairly young franchise, being one of the expansion teams in the NHL from 2000. With the organization participating in a total of 13 seasons played, very few names are available for consideration in this summer hockey series. After considering all the possible candidates that could have been mentioned, it was unanimous to choose the first real starting goaltender for the Wild, Manny Fernandez.
Minnesota Wild – Manny Fernandez
Before his days in St.Paul, Manny was selected in the 3rd round of the 1992 NHL draft by the Quebec Nordiques. Within a couple of years time, during the 1994 trade deadline, Fernandez was traded from Quebec to the Dallas Stars. During the 1994-95 season, Fernandez played his first and only NHL game that year and received a loss. It wasn’t until the 1999-2000 season when Fernandez would get considered as a backup for Dallas, going 11-8-3, in 24 games. Finally, in June 2000, Fernandez was traded to the new expansion team in Minnesota, along with Brad Lukowich for a 3rd and a 4th round draft pick.
In his opening season with the Wild, he would split time with Jamie McLennan, and proved to be the better goaltender, with a 19-17-4 record in 42 games. Shortly after, the Wild decided that Dwayne Roloson earned a spot on the team, and Fernandez would once again split time with another netminder. Fernandez finished the season as the inferior goaltender of the two, playing 44 games, and finishing with a 12-24-5 record.
As such, Fernandez was now submitted to being the back up to Roloson for the 2002-03 season. Yet, even with the lesser role, he was able to improve from the prior campaign. Playing 35 games, he posted a record of 19-13-2. This was the season the Wild made their first playoff appearance and Fernandez was able to play in 9 postseason games, posting a 3-4 record, while having a 1.96 GAA and .925 SV%.
With Fernandez improving over the course of the last season and playoffs, he was re-assigned to the rank of a “1B” goaltender for the Wild in the 2003-04 season. During the course of the season, the Wild weren’t nearly as great, didn’t qualify for the playoffs, and finished last in the Northwest Division. Fernandez would only suit up in 37 games and finished with an undesirable record of 11-14-9.
During the NHL lockout season of 2004-05, Fernandez, like most NHLers, went off to Europe to continue playing hockey. He landed a spot on a Swedish team known as Lulea HF. When returning from the lockout for the 2005-06 season, Fernandez was chosen as the number one goaltender for Minnesota. That season was Fernandez’s best with the Wild, finishing with 30-18-7 in 58 games, and putting up a 2.29 GAA and .919 SV%. Unfortunately, even with his own personal success, the Wild again didn’t qualify for the post-season, and finished last in the Northwest division.
In the following 2006-07 season, Fernandez would once again split his time in Minnesota with the up-and-coming Finnish goaltender Niklas Backstrom. Fernanadez would appear in 44 games, finishing with a 22-16-1 record. His performance resulted in him capturing, along with Backstrom, the William M. Jennings Trophy for the fewest goals against in the NHL. On top of that, the Wild succeeded in making the playoffs but lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual cup winner, the Anaheim Ducks. Fernandez himself didn’t see any playoff action, and that would be the end of his days in Minnesota.
Fernandez becoming disgruntled about his playing time and the constant questions of how solid of a goalie he still was, resulted in him being ranked up and down for the entirety of his time with the Minnesota. As a result, he was dealt to the Boston Bruins on July 1st, 2007 in exchange for Petr Kalus and a 4th round draft pick.
Manny would go on to play with the Bruins for two seasons. The first was cut extremely short, only allowing him to play four games as he was recovering from both back and knee surgeries. The next season of 2008-09, Manny perked up to back up Tim Thomas, finished with a 16-8-3 record, and played enough games to win his second William M. Jennings Trophy. This last bit of success was followed by his retirement.
He would leave the NHL with a career record of 143-123-35 to go along with a 2.50 GAA, a .912 SV% and 15 shutouts, not to mention his two Jennings trophies. In Minnesota franchise history, he is second only to Backstrom in games played (260), wins (113), and saves (6488), while sitting third in shutouts (12), and fourth in both GAA (2.47) and SV% (.913).
It appears that, for most of his career, Fernandez was undermined as a goaltender and never got the chance to show how well he could really perform, often splitting duties with another goaltender and playing more than 44 games in a season just once. Nonetheless, he was a part of the original Minnesota Wild roster and did play an important role in this young franchise’s early history. Still to this day, Fernandez is one of the only two goalies to win the William M. Jennings Trophy for the Wild. As the Minnesota Wild move towards the future, Fernandez shouldn’t be overlooked, as much as he was, for what he brought to Minnesota in its beginning years. In their young history, Fernandez is easily one of the best of the rest when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration.
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