Player Profile: Manny Fernandez

This is the first in a four week series of profiles on the candidates for the Bruins starting goalie job, in order of their likely hood to get the job. The first profile is Manny Fernandez. Acquired in a trade from Minnesota during the draft, Fernandez is classified as a high risk-high reward pickup by Boston. Manny was born August 27, 1974 in Etobicoke, Ontario. His father, Marc is a native of Casablanca, Morocco and said to be of Portuguese descent. His mother is Canadian and the sister of NHL legend and current Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, and Manny's coach from '00 till last season. Contrary to popular belief, Fernandez is not Mexican and is predominately French-Canadian and has lived in the land of the leaf all his life. Manny was selected by the Quebec Nordiques in the 4th round of the 1992 NHL Draft. In 1994, he was traded to the Dallas Stars, the first team he played for in the NHL, and backed up Eddie Belfour after Roman Turek left for St. Louis. After failing to prove himself in Big D, Fernandez became the starting goalie for the expansion Minnesota Wild. Here, Manny appeared to find his niche, but was terribly inconsistent, loosing the starting job first to Dwayne Roloson, then to Nik Backstrom. The jury is certainly still out on Fernandez, some say he is a solid goalie and one of the most underrated players in the league, others say Manny is inconsistent, whiny and a poor teammate. Guess we'll have to wait and see in Beantown. 2007 Prediction- Starting Goalie