Antti Niemi was 26-7-4 with a 2.25 GAA and seven shutouts last season for Chicago.
San Jose, CA (Sports Network) -
The San Jose Sharks officially added former Chicago netminder Antti Niemi on Thursday, signing him to a one-year deal.
While financial terms were undisclosed, earlier reports indicated it is for $2 million.
The cash-strapped Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks let Niemi walk rather than pay an arbitrator's decision to award the Finn a reported $2.75 million contract for the 2010-11 season.
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End in sight for Kovalchuk saga...maybe
Dan Di Sciullo, NHL Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) -
It's shocking that Ilya Kovalchuk has not yet found a home for the 2010-11 season, and now it appears the biggest hockey story of the summer will linger on until at least the end of the week.
The hockey world awaited the NHL's ruling on the New Jersey Devils' latest contract offer to the Russian winger, but that decision, which was supposed to be delivered by 5 p.m. (et) on Wednesday, has been postponed. According to a statement released by the league about an hour before that deadline, the NHL and the NHLPA mutually agreed to push the decision back until 5 p.m. (et) on Friday.
The Twitterverse has already had fun with the cluelessness of the NHL's decision to possibly announce the biggest signing of the summer while most folks in the U.S. will have already shifted gears to their Labor Day weekend plans. But, in the age of the Blackberry, social networking and ESPN's bottom line, if you truly care about the Kovalchuk decision, then most likely you will come across the information at some point this weekend.
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