Bowman prepared for all possibilities, with or without Niemi
By John Talarico,
July 29, 2010 at 6:37 pm
While we won't hear any news regarding Antti Niemi's arbitration hearing until Saturday, Stan Bowman said in a conference call on Thursday evening that the Blackhawks "will try to make it work."
The most encouraging statement from the call was that the Hawks "have some numbers in mind that would make it easy to fit Niemi in." Besides moving a piece of the core, which will not happen under any circumstance, Bowman's options are very limited when it comes to shedding more salary.
The last solution to free up space would be to move Tomas Kopecky and replace him with (another) cheap, young player. If that happens, the lineup might look similar or even identical to the one
I proposed a few weeks ago.
Bowman is also preparing for the possibility of life without Antti Niemi, telling reporters that "There's lots of goaltenders on the market that we're evaluating." The two they are likely keeping the closest tabs on, according to sources, are Marty Turco and Jose Theodore.
Once the arbitration number is announced on Saturday, the Hawks have three options: Accept the ruling and sign Niemi to the proposed contract, deny the ruling and let Niemi become a free agent, or accept the ruling and trade Niemi to another team.
Regardless, Bowman remains confident about his 2010-2011 Blackhawks. "There are still a lot of reasons to be excited about our team. The team in October will be ready."
-JT
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