Just this past Friday, the San Jose Sharks announced that they had signed Chicago Blackhawks' restricted free agent defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to a 4-year, $14 million contract.
Now as a restricted free agent, this offer kicked into gear a period of seven days in which the Blackhawks had to decide whether or not to match San Jose's offer.
And despite most fans and experts believing Chicago would take the full seven days to mull over their decision, Yahoo Sports is reporting today that the Blackhawks have indeed matched San Jose's offer.
Had they declined to match, the Blackhawks would have been compensated with San Jose's first and third round draft choices from next year's draft, but with today's news, it is obvious that Chicago believes Hjalmarsson to be critical to their future success.
While it shouldn't come as a surprise that Chicago matched San Jose's offer, many NHL followers figured the Blackhawks might just let Hjalmarsson walk because of their salary cap issues.
Not only is Chicago still in a position where they need to shed more big contracts, but with defenseman like Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Brian ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Andy Bensch
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July 12th, 2010 by Andy Bensch Leave a reply »
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