Nils Bäckström (born 29 June 1986) is a Swedish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who has played professionally in USA, Finland, Sweden and Russia. He currently plays for

AIK IF Allmänna Idrottsklubben Ishockeyförening (abbreviated ''AIK IF'', also known as ''AIK Hockey'', often abbreviated ''AIK'' in hockey subjects), is the ice hockey department of sports club AIK based in Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2014, AIK's men's ...

in the Swedish second division,

HockeyAllsvenskan HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system, after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL. Since the 2009–10 season, t ...

Playing career

Bäckström began his

junior hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

career in his native Sweden with Stocksund and later Djurgårdens IF Hockey. He was drafted by the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. In 2006, he moved to North America, where he attended the

University of Alaska Anchorage The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a public university in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. UAA also administers four community campuses spread across Southcentral Alaska: Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska–Susitna C ...

, playing four seasons of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

hockey with the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. During the summer period of 2009 he attended the Washington Capitals development camp. From 2010 to 2012 he played for

Ilves Tampereen Ilves, commonly known as Ilves, (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Eurasian lynx, Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Nokia Arena (Tampere), Nokia Arena. The colors of Ilves, ...

in the

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

, Finland. He started the 2012–2013 season with

Timrå IK Timrå IK is a professional Swedish ice hockey team based in Timrå, north of Sundsvall. It competes in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), which is the top-tier league in Sweden, since being promoted by winning 2021 SHL qualifiers. Previous sea ...

. In January 2013 he signed for

. AIK chose not to extend the contract with Bäckström for unknown reasons for the following season, opting him for a new challenge. He spent the 2013–2014 season in the Russian second division with

Rubin Tyumen Rubin Tyumen is a professional ice hockey team in Tyumen, Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, an ...

reaching the final in the playoffs. Stacking up an impressive plus/minus rating during his season earning him with the award for best defenseman in the league. During the 2014–2015 season he rejoined

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Backstrom, Nils 1986 births AIK IF players Alaska Anchorage Seawolves men's ice hockey players Alaska Aces (ECHL) players Detroit Red Wings draft picks Djurgårdens IF (men's hockey) players Ilves players Living people Ice hockey people from Stockholm Swedish ice hockey defencemen 21st-century Swedish sportsmen Timrå IK players