Report: Niemi's Price Tag Set at $2.75 Million in Arbitration
Per Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago.
Niemi was expected to seek at least $3 million, after making $827,000 last season as he led the Hawks to the Stanley Cup title. Because of salary-cap constraints, the Hawks were believed to be seeking a decision in the $2 million range.
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has talked to other teams about "different options," in case the Hawks don't re-sign Niemi.
And according to Matthew Dirt at Second City Hockey, the cap and financial issues that are plaguing the Hawks might make this too bitter of a pill for them to swallow, relegating them to Plan B. A plan that may very well include a cheaper option like Marty Turco.
Chicago will have 48 hours to decide if they want to accept the arbiter's decision or walk away, leaving Niemi an unrestricted free agent.
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If I were Chicago . . .
I’d take the deal and immediately start shopping him. They could, at the least, get a draft pick for him. And trust me, somebody would pick him up. Why walk away from it with nothing?
Then, they could bring Marty in for 2 million to fill the gap.
I’m not too sharp on the money things but I wouldn’t let a Stanley Cup winning goaltender walk away with nothing to show for it.
niemi
the whole point behind getting turco to replace niemi was to cut salary, if they sign niemi and try to trade him they are going to have to eat some if not most of the $2.75 mil he will be owed. not worth it when they are trying to avoid the money issue just to try and get a draft pick
Niemi won't get crap for trade
First, let me start by saying I think the deal he got seems pretty fair. However, I don’t think they’ll get much of a return by signing him and trading him away.
While he is a cup winning goalie, I think his value is a bit overrated. They guy’s only played 39 regular season games with the benefit of doing so behind a stanley cup winning team. He has Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, etc in front of him every night. Put him on another team and see if he’s really that good.
I had him on a fantasy team last year and he seemed a bit streaky. In his last ten games he had a stretch of “sorta bad” (3,2,5 goals against), then a streak of awesome (2, 1, 1, 0) then bad (4, 3, 1 – the 1 was in a five minute relief effort). He did win 6 of those 10 games (even the 5 goal game) but on a less offensively-blessed team that record could have been worse.
I’m just saying that if I were an interested GM I wouldn’t give much for him. Additionally, if they sign him and don’t get a trade they’re stuck with that contract on the books.
Now, a young goalie like Halak and Rask I’d value more (worse teams; Boston’s D is decent but they couldn’t score). I have a feeling that folks are seeing these rookies/youngsters perform well and are riding that wave but Niemi didn’t carry the Hawks like Halak did with MTL and Rask did with the B’s. GMs will see that and not offer squat for him. Besides, there are cheaper goalies on the market right now that have actually played more than half a season.
Not that I’d normally care but I’d love to see Turco go to the Hawks and win a cup (since we’re not going to do it).
It's unfortunate.
For all of the praise that Dale Tallon has received, he put Chicago in position to win one year and now they have to blow the whole thing apart.
During the Cup run, talking to those players, they really, really drew upon Niemi. I know we were all down on him at some point, but that team really used his work ethic and approach to the game as something to build upon.
One of the last Joe Nieuwendyk supporters in Dallas....
Defending Big D - Dallas Stars news & analysis; SB Nation Dallas-Fort Worth
It's better to have lost at love, than to have never loved at all.
Wait, that’s not it.
Ok, so now we have a better appreciation for the Stars return to the SCF the year after winning it. Still, in order to complain about the team needing to be dismantled after winning the Cup- you still hav the “win the Cup” part. I’ll take that, anyday. They still have a bunch of young stars to work with.

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