Earlier in the season, I would have said it all hinges on Stalock. I guess I still do, but now I think Niemi is necessary to give us a goalie who isn’t coming off an injury or back from Europe. I think he gets a couple years more.

Yes, I think we hold on to Niemi for the time being, maybe sign him to a one year contract again this post season.

And got to meet him after a Sharks practice one time.
He seems to be doing a lot better – like he found his niche, so to speak. I hope I spelt that right!
I still miss Nabby, but thats just me… _
Go Sharks.

Well, we know Niemi is going to want a multi-year deal. And he will be able to get one in the offseason, you can count on that. So the question really is…do we want to keep Niemi around for the long haul.

The answer is probably yes…and it is so because of Stalock’s injury. Stalock is/was the goalie of the future…and really, the future was now. He was ready. With Niitty locked up for another year, Niitty-Stalock would have been just fine. Now, with Stalock’s injury, we cannot count on him being ready to overcome the injury and be our NHL guy in net. That’s too much stress coming off something so severe. So Stalock will need AHL time next year. Meaning we’ll need an NHL level goaltender. With Niitty proving to be less than healthy himself, we pretty much have to resign him.

Not to mention, the Sharks coaches have seemingly done wonders with him. He was not a good goaltender when we signed him. Not by a long shot. But they have worked with him, and the D has started collapsing down to collect his awful rebounds…and he’s been playing pretty well. I still think his rebound control is less than average…and that is part of the issue with our offense (having to collapse down to cover for all the rebounds makes it hard to break out effectively), but at least we know we can win with him.

Now, I wouldn’t sign him to too much more of a Cap hit, though. If some other team wants to sign him for 5 years and 4-5 million a year next season, I do not, in any way, want us to match it. However, if we could get him for 3 years and 2.5 to 3 million per, we pretty much have to do it at this point, yeah?

Of course, if DW wants to dump both Niemi and Niitty and go out and get me Vokoun…I would not complain in the slightest.

DW isn’t going to sign him to a multi-year deal if it’s too high anyway. I’ve always been a fan of the guy, but that’s put me in a minority I guess. However, there’s no point in signing him if he wants +$3.5 mil.

Frankly, I don’t want to see Shiittimaki back. He started off well, but he’s just been disappointing since November. His injury doesn’t help his case. Ultimately, it’s looking like Wilson’s signing of both goalies was brilliant.

Hopefully Stalock can recover completely and quickly from his injury. Otherwise, we’re going to have to find another goalie of the future…

Pretty much what I figured…No way DW wanted to risk letting him get away after the huge investment in training.

Question remains: will Nitty stay on-board, or will he get traded in the summer? Will the Meth Squirrel return as a backup, or is hat hole in the waivers process completely taped over?

These are the questions I’m left with.