Nils Bäckström is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player who currently plays for Ilves

Ilves

Ilves is a Finnish sports club nowadays mostly known for their youth work. The ice hockey team plays in the SM-liiga at the Tampereen jäähalli in Hakametsä...

 in the SM-Liiga

SM-liiga

The SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice...

.

Playing career

Bäckström began his junior hockey career in his native Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 with Stocksund and later Djurgårdens IF Hockey

Djurgårdens IF Hockey

Djurgårdens IF Hockey are a professional ice hockey team based in Stockholm, Sweden. They are the ice hockey department of the sports club Djurgårdens IF. The department was formed in 1922 with the help of Wilhelm Arwe and have since then become Sweden's most successful team, having won the Swedish...

. He was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...

 in the 9th round, 290th overall, of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft

2004 NHL Entry Draft

The 2004 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 26 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is especially notable because it was the last NHL event to take place before the beginning of the lockout which canceled all the games scheduled for the 2004–05 NHL season.- Selections by round :Listed...

. In 2006 he moved to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, playing for the University of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 Anchorage Seawolves. During the summer period of 2009 he attended the Washington Capitals development camp.

In August 2010 he signed for Ilves

Ilves

Ilves is a Finnish sports club nowadays mostly known for their youth work. The ice hockey team plays in the SM-liiga at the Tampereen jäähalli in Hakametsä...

 in the SM-Liiga

SM-liiga

The SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

.

Career statistics

				Season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2006–07	University of Alaska Anchorage University of Alaska Anchorage The University of Alaska Anchorage is the largest school of the University of Alaska System, with about 16,500 students, about 14,000 of whom attend classes at Goose Lake, its main campus in Anchorage....	NCAA		33	1	9	10	44
2007–08	University of Alaska Anchorage	NCAA		16	1	2	3	18
2008–09	University of Alaska Anchorage	NCAA		34	4	4	8	38
2009–10	University of Alaska Anchorage	NCAA		27	0	3	3	30
2009–10	Alaska Aces	ECHL ECHL The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...		4	0	1	1	0		1	0	0	0	0
2010–11	Ilves Ilves Ilves is a Finnish sports club nowadays mostly known for their youth work. The ice hockey team plays in the SM-liiga at the Tampereen jäähalli in Hakametsä...	SM-Liiga SM-liiga The SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice...		48	4	2	6	52		6	0	0	0	14
2011–12	Ilves	SM-Liiga		20	0	0	0	12

External links