Antti Niemi beat the San Jose Sharks in the playoffs last year. Now, he’s joining them.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Sign ‘Em: Sharks Sign Former Chicago Goalie Antti Niemi
The Stanley Cup winning goalie, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks, has signed a one-year, $2 million dollar deal according to a ton of different reports. Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet was the first to report the news.
Our Sharks blog, Fear The Fin, had this to say about the signing:
In regards to the signing, I stand by my original assertion that this makes very little sense for San Jose. Antti Niemi is a league-average goaltender who rode on the coattails of a brilliant blueline in Chicago during their Stanley Cup Finals win. His performance against the Sharks in the Western Conference Finals was nothing but an aberration, a case of a goalie getting hot at the right time. It's akin to signing Chris Osgood two years ago based off the fact that he won a Cup, and discounting the fact that he had an all-world defense in front of him led by future Hall of Famer Niklas Lidstrom.
Along with Antero Niittymaki, the Sharks now have two Finnish goaltenders who have names that start with “An’ and Ni.” Cool.
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