The NHL offseason took another stirring turn this week, when Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Antti Niemi was awarded $2.75 million for the upcoming season in restricted free agent arbitration.
The San Jose Sharks had already forced the Blackhawks to commit upwards of $3 million this coming season to keep defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson in Chicago. With the team already in cap trouble, the award was simply too high for the Blackhawks. They subsequently released Niemi, making him an unrestricted free agent.
The truly baffling part was that they turned immediately to free agent goaltender Marty Turco and signed him for a paltry $1.3 million. With the likes of Chris Mason and Antero Niittymaki commanding up to $2 million in 2010-2011, this raises several interesting questions:
Did the Sharks jump too early at Nitty?
Could they have landed Turco for less?
Did Turco take lower pay to join the defending champions?
Ultimately, the answers to all the above are nothing more than speculation and thus of trifle value. The Sharks have Nitty and the Blackhawks have Turco and that is simply reality.
However, another interesting developmen ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Patrick Goulding II
San Jose Sharks: Niemi Is No Antti-Dote for the Sharks
August 4th, 2010 by Patrick Goulding II Leave a reply »
Advertisement