In a stunning turn of events, the Chicago Blackhawks are walking away from the $2.75 million arbitration award for goaltender Antti Niemi and will be signing Marty Turco to a one-year deal for around $1 or $1.5 million (Update: $1.3 million is the number). While a report of this happening came out last night, this makes it all official. Antti Niemi now becomes an unrestricted free agent and the Blackhawks now help solve some of their salary cap questions. Sort of.
The Blackhawks next move figures to be sending Cristobal Huet to Rockford in the AHL to keep his money off of the Hawks salary cap, meanwhile Corey Crawford figures to get the call to join Turco as his backup. For Turco, considering the amount that he’s signing for, there’s a lot of pride being sucked up here by the former Stars starter but doing so to end up on a still very strong team that is coming off of winning a Stanley Cup, that’s worth it to take a shot in the pocketbook for a year.
Turco only has to play as well as Niemi did last season as the Blackhawks will employ a more stern defensive presence in front of him. As Niemi proved during the playoffs last year, Turco won’t have to win games on his own in net, he just has to make sure he doesn’t play poor enough to lose them. Chicago’s offense can help bail him out when need be. With the fearsome defensive foursome in front of him like Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brian Campbell and Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marty Turco already has four better defensemen in front of him than he’s had in Dallas. While Turco certainly had his share of issues with the Stars and he’s turning 35 soon, he’s still very capable of being stellar.
FILE - In this April 26, 2010 file photo, Chicago Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi, of Finland, lets out a yell after the Blackhawks scored an open-net goal late in a hockey game against the Nashville Predators in Nashville, Tenn., to give Chicago a 5-3 win and capture the best-of-seven quarterfinal series 4-2. The 26-year-old first-year Niemi, who once served a stint in the Finnish Army and later drove a Zamboni to earn extra money, has already faced off against Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo and came out on top. Now he’ll be surrounded by Sharks when the Blackhawks begin the Western Conference finals in San Jose on Sunday, May 16, 2010 (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
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As for Antti Niemi, it’s pretty nice to at least have your Stanley Cup championship to console you after losing your job. It’s also nice to have a rather intriguing potential job market out there waiting for you. Teams like the Sharks and Flyers, despite having a full compliment of goaltenders still have questions circling their tentative tandems. What’s not so fun for Niemi now is joining the free agent goalie market. Then again, Niemi’s got something that Jose Theodore and Vesa Toskala don’t have: A winning pedigree in the playoffs.
It would prove to be fascinating if San Jose came calling for Niemi as it was the Sharks who put the Blackhawks in a major bind earlier this summer by signing Niklas Hjalmarsson to a pricey offer sheet which Chicago matched to retain him. San Jose is set to run with Antero Niittymaki and Thomas Greiss in goal which, on paper, looks a bit daunting.