Ratto: Niemi stands tall amongst elite NHL goalies

March 1, 2011SHARKS PAGESHARKS VIDEORay Ratto
CSNCalifornia.com

Creepy alert: When Doug Wilson wants you bad enough, you surrender.Not-so-creepy alert: Antti Niemi left some money on the table to stay out of the free agent market.The Sharks goaltender who started slowly but is now one of the teams biggest assets agreed to a four-year, 15.2 million deal, making him the 17th-highest paid goaltender in 2011-12. That last number is important because Wilson had to convince Niemi and his agent Bill Zito (no relation, as if you needed to be told) that signing now for less was a better idea than waiting until July 1 and be smeared with riches from the Flyers, Red Wings and other bigger spenders with goaltending issues.NEWS: Niemi signs 4-year extension
I met with Billy in Chicago and Boston within the last month, and I talked with Antti today, Wilson said. I just tried to let him know that we wanted him, but that we didnt want to have to tear the team down to get him. He likes it here, he likes his teammates, and he bought in. Im no genius. Hes just a guy who gets it.And will get it, with an escalating contract that starts low and builds from there. He apparently is satisfied where he is that he can stand comfortably behind the following goalies for 2012:1. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers, 6.875M
2. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver, 6.716M
3. Cam Ward, Carolina, 6.3M
4. Ryan Miller, Buffalo, 6.25M
5. Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary, 6M
6. Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota, 6M
7. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh, 5.5M
8. Martin Brodeur, New Jersey, 5.2M
9. Tim Thomas, Boston, 5M
10. Jonas Hiller, Anaheim, 4.5M
11. Rick DiPietro, New York Islanders, 4.5M
12. Pekka Rinne, Nashville, 4M
13. Nikolai Khabibulin, Edmonton, 3.75M
14. Kari Lehtonen, Dallas, 3.7M
15. Jaroslav Halak, St. Louis, 3.5M
16. Carey Price, Montreal, 3M

And ahead of:18. Steve Mason, Columbus, 2.6MIn other words, his 2012 actual number is around 2.7 million, which it can reasonably be inferred would have been significantly higher had he entered the market. Even allowing for owner penury entering a CBA year, goalies still get paid, and Niemi has a ring and the makings of an excellent second season on his resume.We just told Bill and Antti, We want you here, and if you want to be here, lets work on this so we can keep this group together. And they both understood, Wilson said.Now the question of whether the group should remain together is always a dicey one, but it is clear that Wilson is in a stand-pat-with-the-nucleus-tinker-at-the-edges mode (see Ian White, Ben Eager, Kyle Wellwood).In fact, he sort of has to be, as the biggest names and highest price tags (Thornton, Heatley, Marleau, Boyle) have no-move deals and are due 28.567 million next year. The biggest name among available free agent Sharks is Devin Setoguchi, who will be a restricted free agent, followed by White, Scott Nichol, Niclas Wallin, Kent Huskins, Eager and Wellwood.In short, Niemi was the biggest piece for Wilson to take care of today. Setoguchi comes next, with just those 19 pesky regular season games and some as-yet-undetermined number of playoff games in between.Or, as Doug (Dont Call Me Svengali) Wilson put it, We can live with this. I will sleep better tonight.Thursday, of course, is another matter.