Well I guess right now the saying is, If you can beat them, join them. In May Antti Niemi was on a Blackhawks team that swept the top seeded San Jose Sharks out of the playoffs. However, there is a price to pay once you win the Stanley Cup, your team will undergo changes in order to clear cap space. The Blackhawks after winning the cup were stuck is a salary cap mess, thus being forced to part with a quarter of their roster. They started in June by trading fan favorite Dustin Byfuglien along with three others to the Atlanta Thrashers and Andrew Ladd joined him there on July 1st. Kris Versteeg ended up in Toronto, Adam Burish in Dallas, John Madden in Minnesota and now Antti Niemi becomes another cap casualty.
Niemi was awarded a one year deal worth almost $2.5 million by an arbitrator, but the Hawks turned it down and signed veteran Marty Turco to a one year deal worth almost $1.5 million making Niemi an Unrestricted Free Agent. Now Niemi will make Sharks fans very happy as he has signed a one year $2 million dollar deal with the team. He will enjoy the Hawks-Sharks rivalry from the other side. He will also join fellow Finn Antero Nittymaki and will open up the season in Stockholm against the Columbus Blue Jackets. This was a risky move by the Blackhawks, but if you win the Stanley Cup, there will always be changes and they might be major changes, since there is a business aspect in the NHL, but most of you already knew that. But Niemi has one thing Evgeni Nabokov did not, which is a Stanley Cup ring and that might be enough to propel a desperate San Jose team to their destiny, since their window is starting to close. But know one thing Thornton and Heatley will be keys to the Sharks season.
Notes: Tomorrow is the 2nd deadline for the Kovalchuk verdict at 5 PM ET, unless the NHL and NHLPA decide to extend it again with Wednesday after labor day being the likely day. If the NHL is going to make a decision, it will likely be sometime in the final hour and from all indications no 2nd extension is expected like most analysts predict.
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