Niemi awarded $2.75 mil

by Connor McKnight

If the Blackhawks want to keep their Stanley Cup-Winning goaltender from last season they now know the price.  The result of the arbitration hearing between both sides netted a $2.75 million salary for next season.  The Hawks now have 48 hours to make a decision on whether to keep Niemi.  If they decide the $2.75M is too rich, they can walk away from the offer completely or accept it and work out a trade.

Should the Hawks let Niemi go via trade or free agency, the team is said to have interest in veteran goalies Marty Turco or Jose Theodore.  At the Blackhawks convention Friday Hawks GM Stan Bowman said, "We've planned all this out, you know, long ago internally.  We have a plan in place and we'll see which of our five or six plans we're going to actually execute."