SHARKSPAGE

Finding Nemo: San Jose Sharks ink goaltender Antti Niemi to 4-year, $15.2 million contract extension — also earns NHL 2nd star of the month, Sharks POTM honors

NIEMI SIGNED 4-YR, $15.2M CONTRACT EXTENSION TUESDAY - FILE PHOTO

The San Jose Sharks continued their trend of being ahead of the curve early Tuesday morning. Stanley Cup winning goaltender Antti Niemi was signed to a reported 4-year, $15.2 million contract extension. “We wanted Antti to remain a San Jose Shark and he wanted to be here,” San Jose Sharks EVP/GM Doug Wilson said via a press release. “Once he got through his expected integration period with our club, Antti’s play has been outstanding and, just as important, he has consistently been a great teammate.”

“It is a great team, a great organization,” Antti Niemi said today after practice. Asked when he was considering staying with the San Jose Sharks long term, Niemi noted that he had been considering it for awhile. “It was in my mind already last summer. The first couple of months, seeing the place and meeting the team, it confirmed it.”

The move locks up a bonafide #1 goaltender for the 4-5 year projected playoff window EVP/GM Doug Wilson gave the Sharks after last year’s playoffs. It sidesteps the embarassing situation the Chicago Blackhawks faced last season, where they were forced to walk away from a fairly reasonable arbitration award to Niemi of $2.75 million. It also sidesteps the bidding frenzy that could surround Niemi as an unrestricted free agent. After tweaking the roster in January by bringing in Kyle Wellwood and Ben Eager, and acquiring puck moving defenseman Ian White over a week before the prices went up at the trade deadline, Doug Wilson also got good value for his contract by signing Niemi for an average of $3.8M over four years. With Antero Niittymaki signed for 2-years at $2M per, that gives the Sharks a pair of 1A and 1B starting goaltenders for a cap hit in the ballpark of former franchise goalie Evgeni Nabokov ($5.375M).

The announcement of the contract extension came as Niemi was simultaneously named as the NHL’s second star of the month for February. It is the second straight week he has garnered league honors. After earning a 3-0 record, 0.98GAA, .963SV%, and stopping 78 of 81 shots and being named first star a week earlier, Niemi followed that with a more difficult performance on the road in Detroit and Pittsburgh on back-to-back nights. The three game mini-road trip finished with a visit to one of the NHL’s hottest teams in Calgary. In 3 games, Niemi recorded another 3-0 record, 2.54GAA, .906SV% and stopped 80 of 88 shots against. Niemi is hitting his stride in goal, and later Tuesday he was named as Sharks Player of the Month for the second consecutive time (January, February). In the thirteen seasons the Sharks have recognized a player of the month, Antti Niemi is only the sixth goaltender to individually receive the honor in addition to Antero Niittymaki (1), Evgeni Nabokov (11), Vesa Toskala (4), Steve Shields (2) and Mike Vernon (2).

“It is always fun when you are winning, especially with this group of guys,” Niemi said.

Re-signing Niemi became an increased priority after his recent streak of 18 straight starts. With Antero Niittymaki recovering from an undisclosed lower body injury, and Alex Stalock out for the season after suffering a severed nerve in Worcester, the Sharks struggled to find a consistent replacement using 4 backup goaltenders in 6 games (Jordan White, J.P. Anderson, Alex Stalock and Carter Hutton). Niemi absorbed all of the goaltending duties, and helped carry the Sharks on a blistering 15-2-1 pace. Hardened, more defensively responsible play by the forward corps up front, and a similar effort in the d-zone, contributed to Niemi’s performance.

There were questions last year about Niemi after he won a Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in his first full NHL season, albeit a season where he did not take over the #1 role completely until there were 10 weeks left. Some hockey insiders questioned whether his performance was repeatable, and gave a lot of the credit for his success to the spectacular Chicago defense in front of him (this blog included). For some, it was a situation of too much too fast. Winning a Stanley Cup with 37 games played, when other iconic Chicago Blackhawks goaltenders could not bring a Cup to the Windy City over much longer tenures, only increased the questions. After the fiasco of an offseason that saw Chicago bring in a much cheaper, and much less effective Marty Turco to replace Niemi, the Finnish netminder struggled to find his footing early in 2010-11 for the San Jose Sharks. At one point the Sharks goaltending was described as “average”, and the thought gained a little traction.

Settling in with a new team is a process, as much for the goaltender as it is for the defenseman and forwards in front of them. At one point in the season, San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said he was learning as he went along with the goaltenders as well. There were positive signs in Niemi’s playoff run last season that bode well for his future in San Jose. As noted in this post, Niemi continued to make adjustments round to round, and he flat stymied two of the best offenses in the Western Conference in best-of-7 playoff rounds. That ability to make adjustments, and that ability to keep learning, make him a valuable asset for the Sharks going forward.

Last year the Blackhawks could not sign Niemi to a long-term, cost effective contract. Sharks GM Doug Wilson was able to accomplish that, and keep it in the cost structure of his team moving forward. “We think he’s been the best goalie in the league since Dec. 1, and our coaches believe that he’s only going to get better,” Wilson told the Mercury News. That is the scary thing, there are minor tweaks that Niemi can make to improve his game even futhur. The key for the young 27-year old is to keep learning.

“He had a choice, but he wanted to be here,” Wilson said. The contract extension takes one more question off the table, and helps focus the team on the stretch run and the playoffs.

– Post updated with Antti Niemi’s comments. Corrected 2nd star of the week to 2nd star of the month error.

[Update] Sharks reward Niemi with surprising 4-year contract extension – Greg Wyshynski for Puck Daddy.

[Update2] More on Niemi’s New Contract and No Boyle Tonight – Mark Emmons for the Mercury News Working the Corners blog.