Recently, three things happened in the NHL:
1. Kovalchuk finally signed with the Devils. Yawn.
2. Antti Niemi signs with the San Jose Sharks
3. Carey Price Gouged the Canadiens.
#1: Who cares. At least it is finally over. Now the Devils can start dismantling other key assets to try to make cap space. Probably Salvador, Rolston, and who cares. The only weird rumors revolve around Travis Zajac and Zach Parise. One rumor is that the Devils will try to trade or waive Zajac. That's ridiculous because he's much better than Rolston and younger to boot. The other is more plausible. Kovalchuk's signing may mean the end of the Parise era in NJ once Zach's contract is up.
#2: You can just hear Antero Niiitttiiimaaaakiiiii collapse in somewhat sad state. On one hand, Antero's gonna make some $$$ sitting on the bench. On the other hand, he comes skipping into Southern California singing "Zippadedoo dah!! Zippedi-AY! I finally get the #1 job hoo-ray!" only to have Niemi rain on his parade. So, oh well. At least most fans won't have to guess how many double vowels Antero's last name has. It's obvious I'm beyond caring. The only thing I don't understand is this: Niemi signs for 1 year, $2 million. If he offered that kind of a contract to Chicago, do you think they would have walked away? Admittedly, it's only $750K less than the arbitrator awarded him but it could have made a difference.
#3: Carey Price signed a 2 year, $5.5 million contract with the Canadiens. Wow. Hopefully that's $5.5 million in Canadian currency otherwise, the Habs seriously overpaid. Price is only Right when it amounts to about $1.5 million a year. The only positive Price brings to the table is his age. He's young. He could turn into a good goaltender someday... but he has to mature yet. Something he's shown time and time again that it's not possible. The good news for the Habs is that they didn't pull a Huet and signed Price long term. There is NO WAY IN HELL Price is worth as much as Halak is getting in St. Louis or what Niemi would have gotten in Chicago had Chicago not walked away. NO WAY.
It's a sad day when all Niemi can get is $2 million over 1 year and the most overrated goaltender in the NHL gets $2.75 million each year for 2 years.
