When the arbitration ruling came back in Annti Niemi’s favor it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Chicago Blackhawks were going to be forced to part ways with the Finnish netminder. The Blackhawks are thought to have presented a case for Niemi making about $1.75 million, with Niemi’s agent countering with a demand near $4 million. In the end, the arbitrator awarded Niemi a one-year deal worth $2.75 million, which effectively priced Niemi out of Chicago’s plans for the 2010-11 season. Through 39 regular season games with Chicago Niemi assembled a 26-7-4 record while posting a 2.25 goals against average and a .912 save percentage. Niemi followed up a decent regular season by backstopping the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. During the playoffs Niemi compiled a 16-6 record with a 2.63 GAA and

The Edmonton Oilers announced Saturday that they have signed perennial AHL star Alexandre Giroux to a one-year contract worth a reported $500,000. Giroux, who stands 6’3” and weighs in at 205 pounds, was originally taken in the seventh round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft (213th overall). He has spent most of his professional hockey career in the American Hockey League where he has amassed over 300 goals over 636 career AHL games played. Giroux has spent the past three seasons with the Hershey Bears of the AHL, where he has posted back-to-back 50 goal plus seasons, including a career best 60 goal performance in 2008-09. Clearly, Giroux has the talent to play at the AHL level, but he has never been able to transform his AHL skills into the NHL, where he has amassed a paltry four goals, nine

After tons of speculation suggesting that highly sought after free agent sniper, Ilya Kovalchuk was going to sign with the Los Angeles Kings, the L.A. Times is reporting that they were informed by Kings’ general manager Dean Lombardi that Kovalchuk would not be headed to Tinseltown. “We took our best shot to meet his (Kovalchuk’s) needs and the teams”, Lombardi wrote to the L.A. Times via email. At this point there are still a number of NHL teams still interested in Kovalchuk, including the New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche, and the New York Islanders—who are said to have tendered a ten-year $10 million dollar deal to Kovalchuk, the same amount he turned down from the Atlanta Thrashers organization just a few months ago. While it is unknown as to how much money and what kind of term the Kings were

As expected, the Edmonton Oilers used the number one pick to select Taylor Hall , while the Boston Bruins selected Tyler Seguin with the second overall pick. Hall, who won back-to-back Memorial Cups and Memorial Cup MVP’s, gives the Oilers a very talented, offensive-minded forward who should bring a certain amount of respect back to the floundering Oilers franchise. In Seguin, the Bruins get a player that won the OHL scoring title and is the more well rounded of the two top picks. Given Seguin’s skill-set the Bruins feel as if he is ready to step into their everyday lineup as a top six forward. No question, both teams got great players and, while I suspect Hall will be a tremendous NHL scorer, I suspect Seguin will emerge as the better, more well-rounded player. Despite all the speculation, there never

TSN is reporting that the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins have put together a deal that will send Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell to the Boston Bruins for defenseman Dennis Wideman and the 15th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Horton fractured his leg last season, causing him to miss 17 games. That said, he did manage to post 20 goals and 57 points in 65 games played with the Panthers, and by all accounts, looks to have healed from his injury. Horton has posted five straight 20 goal season’s, with his best total coming in 2006-07 when he scored 31 goals. Horton will help the Bruins offensively, both on the power play and five-on-five, while also bringing a bit of grit, and he is a tremendous competitor. The Bruins are known for their depth at centre, and

With so many NHL teams up or near the top of the salary cap there are plenty of big ticket players that NHL general managers would love to send packing. Trouble is, with so little cap space out there, many of these contracts are virtually untradeable. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the NHL’s ten most untradeable contracts—who will emerge as number one? ***Please note: all numbers going forward are courtesy of capgeek.com and represent the players “CAP HIT”, not “SALARY”. Jeff Finger, Defenseman, Toronto Maple Leafs: When then Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher signed Jeff Finger to a long-term deal, many Leafs fans thought Fletcher was, in fact, giving the the fans of the Blue and White, “the finger”. With two years at $3.5 million per left on his contract and without the benefit