National Hockey League: Chicago Blackhawks to decide Antti Niemi fate
Not too long ago, there were concerns among fans and analysts as to whether the Chicago Blackhawks goalie, Antti Niemi, was up to the mark. He proved the sceptics wrong when the Blackhawks held the Stanley Cup over their heads. Now there is a new question.
Can the Blackhawks keep the goalie who led the team to victory last year?
Antti Niemi was the most high profile player to file for Salary Arbitration this year. Making things more interesting is the fact that the Blackhawks have a severe Salary Cap problem. Earlier in this off season, the Blackhawks traded Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager and Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers to make room in their cap. At that time, the Blackhawks’ General Manager Stan Bowman reassured fans that what constitutes the core of the Blackhawks would remain intact.
Antti Niemi is now considered a part of that core. The relatively inexperienced goalie came with the miniscule cap hit last season. Back then, the Blackhawks weren’t Stanley Cup winners and Niemi wasn’t their star goaltender. So when Niemi filed for arbitration, there was little doubt that he would get a considerable salary raise. The arbitrator in Niemi’s case awarded him $2.75 million for the next season. The Blackhawks have to make a decision in the coming days if they want to keep Niemi for that price or not.
Ordinarily, the Blackhawks wouldn’t have had a second thought about keeping Niemi. If not for his goaltending abilities, simply the fact that the Blackhawk fans want to see Niemi stay in the team is reason enough. That, however, would be a little tricky because they have nowhere near enough space in their cap to keep him. The Blackhawks have just $50,000 in their cap.
Unless Stan Bowman comes to a decision before the end of the day, Niemi walks as a free agent. In that case, Bowman would have to woo a goalie from the free agent pool or move someone up from the AHL. It would save the team a lot of cap space but they still lose Niemi. Bowman also has the option of taking Niemi and then trading him for someone with a smaller cap hit. The end result is still the same though: the Blackhawks lose Niemi.
On Monday, Bowman said that he still had options available to him. He said that the decision would be made considering what Niemi brings to the team, what it would cost the team and would someone else be moved in that case. “There's no one right way to do it,” Bowman said.
Bowman said that one player did not make a team, adding that the Blackhawks had a line-up of good players and were ready to defend their title as champions. Perhaps what Bowman is missing here is the fact that one person might not make a team but 7 players start to look more and more like a team.
Niemi would be the seventh player from the Stanley Cup winning team to leave the Blackhawks.
A possible contender for Niemi’s spot would be Corey Crawford. Crawford has had a reasonably successful career in the minor leagues. Although he has had limited exposure to the NHL, he was still able to leave his mark in the eight games he played. He has a record of 1-3 and a decent save percentage of .915. General Manager Bowman is quite pleased with Crawford and in a statement that came on Monday, he hinted that Crawford could be making his move to the big league soon. “(Crawford's) spent a number of years developing in our system and I think the time is now for him to get an opportunity to show us what he can do,” Bowman said. He added that Crawford had been carrying the load for many years in the minor league and it was about time he was given an opportunity.
If Crawford is chosen to replace Niemi, then he would have to fill some pretty large shoes. But where would Niemi go? No one can say for sure.
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