Noon Number for 9-12-2013: .911

Since Backstrom had an unfortunate injury during the warmups of the first playoff game this past season, Harding had to step in and play the games for him (Kuemper played some of them too though).  While it was a short-lived playoff run, he fared pretty well, as he got the aforementioned save percentage, which I chose to use for today's Noon Number.

His regular season was decent as well, as he started in 5 games and broke even in the win-loss category with one win and loss.  His save percentage during the regular season was .863, which wasn't too far off from the likes of rookie goalie Darcy Kuemper, whose save percentage ended up being .916 at the end of last season, and veteran goalie Niklas Backstrom, whose save percentage ended up being .909 at the end of last season.

What's more amazing thing is that he's been able to do this all while dealing with MS.

Speaking of MS, this past summer, he started a charity of his own, appropriately named Harding's Hope.

To find out more about his charity, you can check out his site here.

With that out of the way, let's get back to the main topic.

Seeing numbers like this from Harding is very encouraging, as he will soon have to be playing in more games for the Wild.  Backstrom (who signed a new 3-year deal this past summer) is getting up there in the age category.  Harding is 29, as compared to Backstrom, who is now 35.

If this last season (and it's short-lived playoff run) tell us anything, it's plain and simple to see that Harding has the potential to be a great goaltender again.

Lastly, before I close things up here, I wanted to remind you all about the Wild's training camp.  It began earlier today at 9:30 am at Ridder Arena.  This Saturday and Sunday, they will be coming back to the X and will have their training camps open for the public to come watch (with a scrimmage on Sunday).

Since I forgot to mention that the Number I did on Tuesday was my first one, let me know how I did on that one too.