National Hockey League News: Hjalmarsson's deal with San Jose Sharks almost through
Sharks sign defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson
The Chicago Blackhawks are in a tight spot with their suffocating salary cap. The team management seemed to be losing its restricted free agent Niklas Hjalmarsson to the San Jose Sharks in a 4-year deal which is expected to cost $14 million in total. The Hawks have a week to come up with the same amount that the San Jose Sharks have offered to their defenseman. The only problem is that the Sharks have a lot more room in their cap than the Blackhawks.
If they don’t match the offer and the Sharks get to sign Niklas Hjalmarsson, the Blackhawks will get a first and third round draft pick from the San Jose Sharks as compensation - something the Sharks won’t mind at all, considering the statement of their General Manager, Doug Wilson. He claimed that they felt Niklas is among the top three defensemen in the National Hockey League at present. Wilson further explained that the Sharks were paying close attention at the defenseman’s abilities in last year’s playoffs. He was quoted of saying, “He was an important piece of a Stanley Cup-winning team”. The $14 million offer sheet represents a considerable salary raise for Niklas from his $ 666,000 previous salary.
The Blackhawks, it appears, must choose between the suddenly pricey Niklas and their star goaltender Antti Niemi, who filed for a salary arbitration before this year’s deadline. The Blackhawks have already lost defenseman Brent Sopel to the Atlanta Thrashers who was amongst the 8 players who had led the team to their recent Stanley Cup glory last season. Hjalmarsson scored twice and assisted in another 15 goals in the previous season. The Sharks have been looking for a replacement to Captain Rob Blake who announced his retirement at the age of 40, just last month. “He is a solid player that would be a good fit on our team now and in the future”, the Sharks General Manager said regarding the 23-year-old youngster.
Flyers Sign Nikolai Zherdev into a 1-year contract
Who is the fourth overall draft pick in 2003 sesason, the 25-year-old right winger in the shape of Nikolai Zherdev has signed a 1-year contract for a total cost of $2 million with the Philadelphia Flyers. Flyer’s General Manager Paul Holmgren said that the highly skilled winger would be “a good fit” in the forward formation and that the Flyers were pleased to sign one of the top young point producing players in the National Hockey League. The signing - details of which are yet to surface - marks a return for the Ukrainian from the Kontinental Hockey league, where he scored 39 points in 52 games.
Nikolai was awarded a 3.9 million-a-year contract as a result of the salary arbitration proceedings after the 2008/2009 season with the New York Rangers. The Rangers decided to release Nikolai instead of offering him the price. As a result, Nikolai went to the KHL and is now making the much anticipated return to the NHL. His performances in the past season suggest that he is in good form and could possibly be heading for a 50 point season once again.
There are concerns that the Ukrainian is somewhat inconsistent and usually stays away from high traffic spots on the ice and contributes nothing in terms of defense. On the contrary, that is just an opinion and with 99 goals and 140 assist in 5 seasons, undermining Nikolai’s skills and abilities could be considered as unforgivably naive.
There are still more ramifications coming in from the deal that are yet to come out. The Flyers are now over their salary cap. If the Nikolai deal goes through, rumor has it that the prospective Flyer would be replacing Simon Gagne. How would that turn out is still not clear though. The Flyers initially claimed that Simon had waived his no-trade clause but that statement was quickly followed by Simon himself who said that he had done nothing of that sort. The Nikolai deal perhaps means that some sort of agreement has been reached between the Philadelphia Flyers and Simon or someone else is going to make room for Nikolai.
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