Christian Rune Bäckman (born 28 April 1980) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played over 300 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets, and spent the latter part of his career with

Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...

of the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

Playing career

Bäckman was drafted by St. Louis Blues in the

1998 NHL Entry Draft The 1998 NHL Entry Draft was the 36th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 27 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York. A total of 258 players were drafted. The last active players in the NHL from this draft class were Brian Gionta, Mi ...

, 1st round, 24th overall. It was not until the

2002–03 NHL season The 2002–03 NHL season was the 86th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup winners were the New Jersey Devils, who won the best of seven series 4–3 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Regular season The regular se ...

that he got a contract for play in the NHL. He only played four games for St. Louis in his first season, spending the rest of the season playing for Worcester Ice Cats in the American Hockey League (AHL). Between 2003–04 and 2007–08 he was a regular for St. Louis recording 64 points (19 goals, 45 assists), and 130 penalty minutes in 228 games. During the

2004–05 NHL lockout The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play. The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...

Bäckman played for his Swedish youth club Frölunda in

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

where he totalled 19 points in 50 games, winning the Elitserien playoffs. St. Louis announced on 10 August 2006 that the club re-signed Bäckman for a multi-year contract, although no contract details was released. According to Swedish newspaper

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

the contract gives Bäckman 50 million

Swedish kronor The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it b ...

(approx. $7 million) over three years. On 26 February 2008, Bäckman was traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for a 4th round draft pick. On 2 March 2008, in his second game as a Ranger, Bäckman scored his first goal as a Ranger on Antero Niittymäki of the Philadelphia Flyers, off assists from Brendan Shanahan and Scott Gomez. On 2 July 2008, Bäckman was traded, along with

Fedor Tyutin Fedor Anatolievich Tyutin (russian: Фёдор Анатольевич Тютин, ''Fjodor Tjutin''; born 19 July 1983) is a Russian former professional ice hockey defenceman. Tyutin was drafted in the second round, 40th overall by the New York R ...

, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for

Nikolai Zherdev Mykola Olehovych "Nikolay" Zherdev ( uk, Микола Олегович Жердев; born November 5, 1984) is a Ukrainian-Russian professional ice hockey right winger who is currently playing for the HC Merano of the Alps Hockey League. He p ...

and Dan Fritsche. In October 2009, Bäckman signalled the conclusion of his North American career by signing with

Personal life

Bäckman was born 1980 in a small town Alingsås. He has two siblings. He grew up in mostly Alingsås but moved to Gothenburg to start his Ice Hockey career. Bäckman is married to wife Jeanette Bäckman. Together they have 3 children. William Bäckman born in 2001, Thea Bäckman born in 2004 and Ellie Bäckman born in 2010. He spends his off-season in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Backman, Christian 1980 births Living people Columbus Blue Jackets players Frölunda HC players Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics National Hockey League first-round draft picks New York Rangers players Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Olympic ice hockey players of Sweden Olympic medalists in ice hockey People from Alingsås Municipality St. Louis Blues draft picks St. Louis Blues players Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Swedish ice hockey defencemen Worcester IceCats players Sportspeople from Västra Götaland County