Sharks have a goalie conundrum on the horizon

I don’t think he’s expected back for another 4 or 5 weeks, however, if he goes to Worcester on a conditioning stint and proves that he’s A) healthy and B) still a capable goalie, I would imagine there would be a team willing to give up a late round draft pick or the always popular ‘future considerations’ for him.

I really don’t think they’ll want to trade Greiss seeing as he’s signed through next season and the Sharks don’t really have a goalie in the system who’ll be ready for NHL time next year. I also don’t think Greiss would fetch a whole lot in a trade either, he’s still only played a total 24 NHL games and hasn’t proven that he can be a #1 yet, even with his stellar start to the season. I’m sure there’s a team that would probably be willing to give him that opportunity though, just not sure how much that team would give up.

It’s too bad Niitty isn’t healthy now ’cus I do think Toronto or Columbus would probably take him.

Trade bait ftw. Keep Griess and get rid of the bum.

I’ve never been a fan of Nitty. Always been a fan of Meth Squirrel. Throw in Stalock coming up and Niemi and I don’t see a spot for Nitty anymore. He came in at a time we were in desperate need of a goalie, but I personally don’t see the need for him anymore.

To me it’s not a tough decision.

I think we try and get a pick for Nitty and wish him well. Niemi will improve and Greiss is too good a backup to let go of.

Niemi, to the chagrin of some fans, is staying no matter what.

Although, not only me. I do wonder if Niemi is a slow closer as well as a slow starter, though…since his playoff stats the last two years have been just this side of abysmal. Wins or not, a sv% hovering around or below .900 is really bad. So does he have a slow start, a “hot” middle, and then get tired? Or maybe his 2 month stretch last season that got us back into the playoffs was an anomaly? Dunno. Still don’t think he is the answer…but he can feel free to win us multiple Stanley Cups to prove me wrong…

Back to the question at hand…Niittymaki has to be the odd man out. And since I doubt we could get anything for him, he has to be waived, right? I mean, what would waiving him cost us? His whole cap hit the rest of the year? I could deal with that…and we have the cap space to eat it. I feel bad, since I kind of like Niitty, and feel like he’s been a good sport about everything…but he’s injured a lot, and won’t have played for quite a while when he is ready. Probably best for him and for us to let him try and catch on with another team.

If the Sharks bail on Greiss, I might have to stab someone. Just sayin…

He’d be Olde Tobey.

Trade Niitty, keep Greiss. The term of Niemi’s contract still bothers me, greatly, since we have Greiss, Sateri and Stalock as reasonable candidates to take the starting job in the next couple of years. Niemi’s going to be trade bait very shortly if he can’t find permanent consistency.

That is 100% a sure thing

ought to be on a short leash, even though he obviously isn’t. His contract terms still irk me, and he is as much a slow finisher as he is a slow starter.

I’m not saying this is the case, but he’s had the luxury of being on some of the best teams in the league with the cup-winning Hawks and 2-time-Western Conference finalists Sharks over the past few years, which leaves me to wonder whether he had the benefactor of playing for top notch teams and is just an above average goaltender.

Sure he’s a talented goalie, but is he $3.8 Million worth? You got Greiss at super cheap with great reward, with Stalock and Sateri proving worthy of a chance in the near future, and Nitty proving he’s playoff worthy in the LA series.

Why shouldn’t Niemi be on trade bait, at the very least?

…mostly, Niemi-Greiss-Stalock in. Nitty out for whatever we can get if not for the savings alone.

However, I do think we are all forgetting just how young Niemi actually is. I think he is still developing into his own as a starting NHL goalie and his best years are to come (he will get better).

His rookie campaign could not have ended any better…. How many cup-winning net minders (in their prime) have we had?

If we got a stellar offer for Greiss, I’d say go for it, but otherwise I think that it’s not a bad move giving up Nitty for a pick, some cap room, and another slot to add a contract to if need be.

I’m not a huge fan of Niemi’s slow starts, but I’m not sure there’s a way around it for the foreseeable future. I’m fairly certain, though, that as long as Niemi has slow starts at least a segment of the fanbase will have significant angst about it and people will want a change.

You guys should use more anecdotes. That’s the shit I find interesting.

• 09-10: Starts as Chicago’s backup, but becomes the starter after Cristobal Huet practically gives the job away.
• 10-11: Begins the season here in a timeshare, but based on Nitty’s stronger play at the outset, Niemi’s the 1B. Not until Nitty’s play begins to drop and subsequent injury does Niemi really become entrenched as the starter.
• 11-12: Starts the season recovering from surgery to remove a cyst. No preseason games to really reacclimate, gets the nod in the Sharks 4th game.

So while he hasn’t really been very strong to start out seasons, he also hasn’t had a conventional beginning to his 3 seasons in the NHL either, at least when it comes to being the established starting goaltender – Rookie Backup, 1B, Injured. So maybe we won’t see how he really starts the season until next year.

He’s the starter, he’s earned it. That being said, I also think Greiss has played well enough to get more nods too, so Nemo doesn’t get worn out like he seemed to be in the playoffs last year.

…but could they offer anything we’d want? and would they want someone they’d only be locking down for less than 1 season?

9 – 4 – 1 with 19 points, a 2 game win streak, and a record of 8 – 1 – 1 over the last 10 played.

I’ll take Niemi’s slow start in stride, because the Sharks are in good positioning so far. And don’t forget Griess dropped a few games in a row back in the beginning of the season. Were they his fault? No, the penalty kill looked terrible. The same areas of play that affect Niemi’s stats will affect Griess too. That said, I expect Nitty to go bye bye here soon.

Perhaps the most maddening part of this whole ordeal is that Nemo is a goalie who, “Plays better the more starts he gets”. This goes contradictory to trying to keep him rested for the playoffs and having a backup netminder who can take the load off him. Something HAS to give…

…or his injuries. It just seems like whenever he’s had the chance he’s never been able to pick up the reigns, so to speak.

And I’ve always liked Greiss. At the very least Greiss is a solid back up.