As everyone thought the Sharks had solved their goalie problem, they might have made it harder again. With the Sharks signing Antero Nittymaki to a 2 year $4 Million contract, it seemed that Nittymaki would be the starter and Griess or Stalock would be the backup to him, but now that has changed. As of Friday, the Sharks have signed former Blackhawk Antii Niemi to a 1 year $2 Million contract. But the Sharks almost didn’t get Niemi.

Since Niemi only had a 1 year deal with the Blackhawks he was expecting a major pay raise considering his outstanding playoff performance last season, but when he was only offered a $825,000, he decided to go to arbitration.

After the trial, the arbitrator awarded Niemi with a 2 and 3/4 million dollars, and instead of keeping him, the released him as an unrestricted free agent and replaced him with Marty Turco. But that decision wasn’t all up tho the Hawks. Earlier in the offseason, the Sharks made a move on Defensemen Niklas Hjalmarsson, offering him a 4 year $14 million deal, but the Hawks decided to match the offer. Which meant, with all of their other salary cap issues, when Niemi won the arbitration, the Blackhawks didn’t have the money to keep him. So now he is the 2nd goalie the Sharks have signed this offseason.

Follow all of the Free Agency action in the 2010 off season. The Sharks have signed Goaltender Antero Nittymaki, resigned Defender Jay Leach, and they have made an offer on Niklas Hjalmarsson, which the Blackhawks have matched.

But what doesn’t make sense is that the Blackhawks traded Byfuglien and Versteeg just to qualify for their salary cap for the 2010-2011 season, but how could they match a 4 year-$14million contract? They must have a big trade in the works.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=63235

The 2010 NHL draft is tonight at 4PM pacific daylight time. The first round picks are today and rounds 2-7 are on Saturday. The draft is taking place in the Staples Center, home of the L.A. King. The Sharks pick 28th out of 30. The Sharks won’t have a 2nd round pick or a 4th round pick, but the gained 7th and 8th picks in the 5th round. Also the Sharks have a 16th pick in the 5th round but again the traded away their 28th pick. In the 6th round the Sharks don’t have their pick. But in the final round the have a 8th round pick, but they don’t have their assigned 28th pick.

The Sharks second round pick was traded to the NY Islanders as an outcome of a trade that sent Andy Sutton to the Senators in exchange for the pick.
Ottawa gained the draft pick with the Dany Heatley Trade.

The Sharks 23rd pick in the 2nd round went to the Hurricanes for Niclas Wallin and a 5th round pick. The Sharks were granted this pick in the Craig Rivet trade.

The Sharks fourth round pick went to the Lightning as the result of the trade for Dan Boyle and Lukowich to San Jose in exchange for Matt Carle, Ty Wishart,  a first round pick for the 2009 pick and the fourth pick in the 2010 draft.

The 7th pick in round 5 came to the Sharks in the Wallin trade.

The Sharks 8th pick in the 5th round was gained in the Brad Staubitz trade and the 16th pick was from the Dany Heatley trade.Their assigned 5th round pick went to the Kings for a 2008 4th round pick. * This happened Monday

Their 6th round pick went to the Senators, who gained it from Dallas, who got it from the Sharks, who traded it for a 2009 7th round pick.

The Thrashers traded their 8th pick in the 7th round and two players to the Sharks so they could accept a trade from the Blackhawks. * This happened Wednesday

The 7th round pick and Craig Rivet went to the Sabers for 2nd round draft picks in 2009 and 2010.

Today the owners in the NHL decided unanimously to put new rules on blindside hits to the head. They agreed that the blindside hits are punishable with a 5 minute major penalty and a match ejection. I think it’s about time the NHL started to crack down on the dangerous hits.

This month a lot has happened. The former captain, Rob Blake, has retired. GM Doug Wilson dished Brad Staubitz over to the Wild for a 5th round draft pick, and as of today the Sharks have released their schedule for next season. They will play their first season game against the Thrashers at home on October 16. The drafts will start on June 25. Also free agents will become available on July 1st
Speaking of free agents, the Sharks will not be resigning Nabby. So he will become a free agent. Could the Sharks be going after Turco? And so far they haven’t resigned Marleau either.

As I watch the playoff games, one thought keeps running through my mind. Where is Dany Heatley? What is he doing? Out of the 2009-2010 playoffs he only has 2 goals! In 14 games. That is an average of 1 goal every 7 games. That is not how 1st line forwards should be playing. Joe Pavelski has almost 5 times as many goals as Heatley does. In game 3 of the Conference Finals, Marleau had as many goals in 2 periods as Heatley has in the whole 2009-10 playoff series. That is just sad.

Heatley needs to step his game up and help out his team. Couture has 1 more goal than Heatley. Couture is a rookie, and Heatley has played in the NHL for about 10 years. Scott Nichol is on the forth line and he works so much harder than Heatley. When Nichol gets out on the ice, he is hitting and forcing the Blackhawks (and other teams) to make bad plays. Heatley rarley hits and he doesn’t backcheck very hard. Nichol is on the last line and Heatley is on the first. There is something wrong with that picture. I think that Heatley needs to step up his game or The Sharks needs to trade him.

The Sharks are now down 3-0 to the Blackhawks. They will have to win all of the next four games in order to win the series. The Flyers did the exact same thing last round. But the Blackhawks are playing better than the Bruins are. The Sharks have gotten themselves into a very deep hole that I don’t think they will be able to get themselves out of. The next game is in Chicago at 12pm on Sunday. The only thing that we can possibly hope for is a game seven in San Jose. Go Sharks!

So the next time people say,”Oh, hockey is just checking, and fighting,” just show them this photo.

With their loss last night, the Sharks are down 2-0 to the Blackhawks. They will have to win in the Blackhawks Arena at least once just to stay alive in this series. The Sharks will also have to win 4 of the next 5 games in the series in order to advance to the Cup Finals. The Blackhawks only have to win 2 of the next 5 to advace. The Sharks will have to come out fast and put a lot of pressure on the Blackhawks right off the start in order to get control of the game.