by Adam GretzFiled under: Blackhawks, Coyotes, NHL Free Agency
The remaining options on the free agent market are very limited, but there's still a couple of players out there that can be useful. And it's a bit of a surprise some of them are still available. Here are some thoughts on three such players...Antti Niemi Has a Stanley Cup Ring, but No Job: It's not often that a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender is let go -- for any reason -- the year after helping his team to a championship. Such is life in the salary cap NHL, especially when your team is millions upon millions of dollars over the cap at the start of the offseason. The situation for Antti Niemi right now is simple: 1) There are just not that many job openings for a starting goalie in the NHL, and 2) teams just aren't spending that much money on the position this offseason.
The success of teams like Detroit, Philadelphia and, yes, even Chicago with Niemi, has resulted in more teams turning their backs on the big-name, big-money goaltender, and instead investing in talent around the goalie. The very situation that helped Niemi win a Cup, make a name for himself and boost his "value" (in theory) is also helping, in part, to keep him out of a job.
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