Monday, August 2, 2010

Ice Scoopz: Monday Morning

*-> The Chicago Blackhawks have walked away from Anti Niemi's 1 year 2.75$ arbitration award making him a free agent this morning. They then turned around and signed Marty Turco to a 1 year deal worth 1.3$ million as rumored. The San Jose Sharks, Philly Flyers, and Washington Capitols all are rumored to be interested in Niemi. Not liking this one too much. I like Turco but to lose Niemi for nothing is disappointing. The Hawks should have tried a sign n trade.

*-> Erik Johnson of the St. Louis Blues has signed a 2 year deal worth 5.2 million overall.

*-> Brendan Witt has officially been bought out of the 2 year contract worth 6 million overall. Witt now becomes a free agent.

2 comments:

Tom said...

Has there ever been an example of a team just walking away from a goalie who just won them a cup? The way the Habs discarded Halak was ugly, but this is a new low. And I agree Scoopz, if they are going to treat players this way, at least take the arbitration ruling then trade to get some picks in return.

Scoopz said...

I'm not too sure about that one Tom. I highly doubt there has been a case where a team has rejected a goaltender that helped them reach the Stanley Cup. It's really bizzare and shows how much the cap has Chicago management rattled. As Red Fisher said why would the Hawks match an offer sheet for Niklas Hjalmarsson and just let an important position like goaltender go. Especially when the goaltender got 2.7, he was asking for 3 million and they were aiming for 2 - 2.2. Doesn't add up, I'd say thats just about in the middle. Just think of the chemistry lost in the past 2 months with Burrish, Madden, Niemi, Versteeg, Eager, Byfuglien, Ladd and so on.