Over the last hour or so, numerous reports are suggesting that free agent goaltender Antti Niemi has decided (in principle) to sign with the San Jose Sharks.
Niemi, who is coming off a Stanley Cup victory with the Chicago Blackhawks, was recently awarded $2.75M in salary arbitration due to his fantastic rookie campaign.
Despite his impressive performance as a rookie, the Blackhawks decided the $2.75 million mark to be out of their price range due to their current salary cap limitations.
This left Niemi to become a unrestricted free agent but long after the original free agency date of July 1st and so the goalie market had already proved to be extremely thin with all types of goaltenders having to settle for smaller deals.
After all, most NHL GMs have noticed that the recent Cup winning goaltenders haven't been the big-name, high-priced names that dominated in the past.
Naturally, most teams are now allocating less money to the goaltending position than they have in years past.
As for the Sharks, and their GM Doug Wilson, this philosophy of paying more for defense and less for netminding was thought to be includ ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Andy Bensch
Antti Niemi Rumors: If the Reports Are True, What Does This Mean for the Sharks?
September 1st, 2010 by Andy Bensch Leave a reply »
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