Nicklas Bäckström chatted with reporters as he prepares for to make his Dynamo debut, and Malin Anderson provides this transcription:
When you decided to come over did it take long for you to make the decision to come over?
“No, it didn’t. I told Ovi and you and everybody two weeks ago maybe. And that’s when I decided that I wanted to play and this was a good option for me and I’m glad that Dynamo wanted to have me here.”
As you may or may not know Ovechkin was having critical comment on the NHL negotiation do you have any opinion on that?
“Yeah, not really. I heard what he said but I mean but I don’t have any comments right now, we will see what happens. The one thing I can tell right now is that nothing is happening. So we will see what’s going to happen.”
When you were given bunch of numbers to choose, why did you choose number 99?
“Because I had a 9 in my 19 and 19 was taken and then I didn’t like the other numbers so 99 was the only one.”
So you will be like the Swedish Gretzky?
“No. I will be like the Swedish Nicklas Bäckström.”
Do you know anything particular about Dynamo or their history, or former stars or players?
“Yeah, they have a lot of history and last night at the museum I was looking around at pictures and stuff, for me as a Swede I saw a couple of Swedes that’s been playing there. It’s a famous club in Russia.”
After watching a Dynamo game you had a chance to look at the system. Do you think this will be a system that is interesting to play?
“Yeah, I’m excited I mean. I think […] is a great club and I’m excited to start playing and I think everything looks good, the system and everything.”
Ovi and Backy from the capital in U.S. to the capital of Russia. Do you think it will be as comfortable for you as before?
“I hope so. I think so, I mean me and Ovi have been playing with each other for five years now so hopefully we know where we are on the ice.”