Will ‘Hawks Say No to Niemi?

Earlier today, it was revealed that Antti Niemi’s arbitration award is $2.75 million. Many believed that number would be well over $3 million, which would have presumably cause the Blackhawks to walk away.

Though the eventual award may seem like a bargain, it is anything but for Chicago, who is currently over the salary cap. According to CapGeek, if the Blackhawks send Cristobal Huet down to the AHL and opt to re-sign Niemi, they would have a little over $2.47 million remaining in cap space.

The tricky thing is that the team would still be three players short of reaching 20 on the roster, and would probably want an additional forward or defenseman for flexibility. For GM Stan Bowman to sign four players at $2.47 million means the signees (or incoming rookies) would have to average approximately $617,000 in salary.

This afternoon, Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago tweeted that it looks likely that the Blackhawks could wind up dealing the Finnish netmidner since the award was still higher than their desired number.

If that is the case, it is heavily rumored that the ‘Hawks will sign veteran Marty Turco to fill the void in net. Where would Niemi land? Well, there are only four teams I can see wanting to add a goalie like Niemi – San Jose, Philadelphia, Washington, and Dallas.

Washington has stated that they are reluctant to add another goaltender as they’re satisfied with youngsters Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth.

San Jose signed Antero Niittymaki earlier this summer, and also has Thomas Greiss under contract. Niittymaki and Niemi wouldn’t be a bad one-two combo – if they don’t feel Greiss is ready for a bigger workload.

Philadelphia could use a better goaltender than Michael Leighton and/or Brian Boucher; but have less than $1 million in cap room, and will likely address their goaltending needs during the season (if need-be).

Dallas is another team that could use an upgrade, but Kari Lehtonen and Andrew Raycroft are signed under one-way contracts… so this option is less than slim.

If the Blackhawks choose to keep Niemi (which is what I would do), they’ll have to finagle around the salary cap. If they decide to part ways, there aren’t too many options for the 26-year-old, Cup-winning netminder. This should be an interesting next couple of days!
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Patrick Hoffman has this to add:
No matter how you look at it, the Blackhawks and Niemi are in a tough spot. Niemi's agent, Bill Zito, never thought that it would come to this and on the Hawks side, they may end up losing a netminder that helped win the team's first Cup in 49 years.

In another article at ESPN Chicago, Rogers said that if the team does accept the deal, fans should expect that it will be Niemi's last season as a Blackhawk. Rogers points out that after this upcoming season, Niemi will be a UFA and mentions that he and his group will not want to deal with what they just had to go through again.

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