It’s believed that goalie Antti Niemi will be signing with the San Jose Sharks as early as Thursday.

Niemi was Chicago’s man of the hour last season, helping the team to a Stanley Cup victory. But the Blackhawks walked away from their goalie after he was awarded $2.5 million as an arbitration award and it’s been a big question as to where Niemi was headed. It looks like we have our answer.

Sportsnet is reporting that the deal with the Sharks will be a one year contract worth around $2 million.

Niemi had a 26-7-4 record for the Hawks during the regular season and posted a 2.25 GAA. Considered one of the keys to the team’s playoff success, it was believed that the team would re-sign him within reason. But salary cap woes led to a stripping of the Blackhawks and Niemi was dumped along with other key playoff performers like Dustin Byfuglien.

For their part, the Blackhawks are now stuck with Cristobal Huet’s massive contract. They’ve also signed Marty Turco and have Hannu Toivonen waiting around on the farm.

Niemi would be a nice fit on the Sharks. He’ll probably serve as the team’s starter, with Antero Niittymäki as the back-up. With Evgeni Nabokov set to play for SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, it could be a period of rebuilding in goal for the San Jose club. Niemi is as good a place as any to start that process out.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

After failing to lock up Niklas Hjalmarsson to an offer sheet, the San Jose Sharks find themselves still in the market for a defenceman to fill the void left behind by Rob Blake. The Sharks are short that one key blueliner, clearly, and GM Doug Wilson is said to be shopping around for a top-tier guy to sign.

There have been a number of potential targets for Wilson. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Wilson’s shown interest in Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa, Toronto’s Tomas Kaberle, and Marc Staal of the New York Rangers.

The problem with Kaberle is that his price is probably too high for what Wilson would be willing to pay. Staal could be a possibility, as it’s thought that the RFA has fallen out of favour with management in New York. There’s nothing concrete on that situation, though, and it’s believed that Staal wants to remain a Ranger.

That leaves Bieksa. There is indeed some history between Wilson and Mike Gillis, too, so that could open some doors. Christian Ehrhoff headed to the ‘Nucks last year and the avenues could be wide open for a deal to be worked out to ship Bieksa over to San Jose. And with Vancouver boasting the acquisitions of Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis, it’s probable that the club would move a D-man.

Whether Wilson can package up something decent the other way for Bieksa is an issue, of course, as the rest of the Sharks seem pretty set to go. It’s possible that a guy like RFA Devin Setoguchi could be moved and it’s true that San Jose has over $6 million of cap space, so Wilson has a lot of wiggle room.

Bieksa, for his part, has told TSN’s Off the Record that he knows that he’s a candidate to be traded. With Gillis still top-loaded with defensive contracts in Vancouver, somebody has to be on the move.

So, like Kevin Bieksa, it’s possible to put two and two together. Whether that amounts to a deal for Wilson’s Sharks remains to be seen, but I think it’s fair to say that something’s in the water.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The San Jose Sharks have signed restricted free agent Niklas Hjalmarsson, using an offer sheet to sign the former Chicago Blackhawk defenceman to a four year deal worth $14 million.

The Blackhawks do have seven days to match the offer. If they don’t match the deal, they’ll receive a first and a third round pick from the Sharks as compensation.

It looks like the Sharks are trying to fill the hole left behind by Rob Blake. Hjalmarsson isn’t exactly thought of as a top defender in the National Hockey League, but the 23-year-old does have some skill and the confidence of Sharks GM Doug Wilson.

“We feel Niklas is a top-three defenceman in the National Hockey League,” Wilson said. “We saw his abilities firsthand in the playoffs last season and he was an important piece of a Stanley Cup-winning team. He is a solid player that would be a good fit on our team now and in the future.”

The situation is reflective of the troubles in Chicago with the salary cap. It’s unlikely that the Blackhawks will be too interested in dealing with Hjalmarsson and we can essentially consider him a Shark. They have a reasonably full defensive roster as it is and probably won’t be too keen on sending any more money his way.

Hjalmarsson is coming off his first full NHL season. He finished with two goals and 15 assists in 77 games.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

According to CSNPhilly.com, former San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov could be sporting a Flyers jersey soon. CSNPhilly.com is reporting that the Flyers have reached a verbal agreement for the signing rights to Nabokov, sending the Sharks a seventh round pick in the 2011 draft if they can sign the goaltender prior to July 1.

Nabokov is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

According to TSN, Nabokov has told the Flyers that he would rather test the market first and head into free agency on July 1. It’s possible, too, that he’ll have more than his fair share of KHL options.

Sharks GM Doug Wilson wouldn’t confirm any deal to sign Nabokov, but he did tell CSNPhilly.com that there were a few issues around the negotiating process that could take some time to sort out.

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren was similarly quiet about the issue, stating only that Nabokov was a “good goalie” before adding that he thought the Russian would test free agency waters on July 1.

So even with the rumblings of the former Sharks goalie heading to Philly, it’s hard to nail down anything concrete. It seems that there is a conditional handshake deal and that the Flyers might be looking to sign him seriously, but the ultimate location of Nabokov’s 2010-2011 season is far from determined.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Dustin Byfuglien was the man of the hour yet again as his clutch goal put the San Jose Sharks away for the post-season. The Chicago Blackhawks completed the series sweep and Byfuglien scored his third game-winning goal of the series, defeating the Sharks by a final score of 4-2 on Sunday.

The Sharks started out well enough in the game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead before the Hawks came back to tie things in the second period. Once again, like in the Blackhawks’ series against the Vancouver Canucks, it was penalties that made all the difference and the Sharks weren’t able to stay out of the box. Perhaps more importantly, they weren’t able to stop the bleeding when they did get on the PK.

San Jose took three straight penalties in the third period, giving the Blackhawks every opportunity in the book to put the game and the series away. They did just that in classic fashion and Byfuglien notched the winner in typical fashion in front of the net.

Blackhawks goalie Antii Niemi was solid once again, stopping 16 of 18 shots for the victory, but he wasn’t anywhere near as busy as he’d been in previous series games. Despite the fact that the Sharks looked good facing elimination, they weren’t able to muster much offensive force in the game when it mattered.

Patrick Marleau was still the Sharks’ best player, however, and that has to give the team a slight glimmer of hope to hold on to. He was a significant “question mark” in other matchups this post-season, but he sure came to play against the Blackhawks.

The Sharks will struggle to find anything good to cling to from the series, though, and that’s going to be a problem for their fans and supporters. The “this is our year” conversation had been happening everywhere in San Jose since the team proved they could advance beyond the opening round of the post-season, but few expected them to get swept by the young Blackhawks.

Whether there will be rebuilding or retooling in San Jose remains to be seen, of course. A lot of players proved their stuff this post-season, while a lot of other players simply didn’t.

As for the Blackhawks, they’ll wait for the winner of the Flyers and Habs series. And they’ll be ready, too.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

As the NHL’s post-season rolls closer and closer to its finale, it looks like the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens could find themselves on the outside looking in. Both teams are one game away from elimination after action on Saturday and both teams have barely shown up to play thus far.

That’s not to say that their opponents don’t deserve any credit, of course. The Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers have played some excellent hockey over the last few days, but the Habs and Sharks haven’t exactly been clicking on all cylinders.

The Blackhawks find themselves in the surprising position of being able to sweep the Sharks on Sunday afternoon. Dustin Byfuglien was the hero of the day for Chicago fans after potting the overtime winner on Friday to give the Blackhawks a 3-0 series lead. To say that the Sharks have had trouble containing him and his teammates would be an understatement, as Captain Serious Jonathan Toews has lead his team as well as any young captain ever has.

Chicago’s Antti Niemi has been spectacular in goal, too, making 44 saves in Friday’s game to help his team to victory. He’s been able to get a fairly good look at the puck throughout the series due to responsible and physical play from his defencemen.

The Sharks will now try to find some strength in the story of the Flyers and their comeback from a 3-0 series deficit, but it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see two of those historic turnarounds in one season’s playoffs.

The Flyers, meanwhile, have been successful in handling the attack of the Montreal club. They’ve also received incredible goaltending from Michael Leighton and have managed to take advantage of some bad luck from the Canadiens, including a skate issue with Josh Gorges that led to a Claude Giroux goal during Saturday’s contest.

The Flyers took a commanding 3-1 series lead thanks to Saturday’s 3-0 win and managed to keep the Habs off of the scoreboard for the third time in the series.

Of course, the Canadiens and their fans will be relying on the fact that they’ve gone 5-0 when facing elimination in the post-season thus far. Statistically they stand a better chance at coming out of this than the Sharks do, but they’re facing a tough and hungry Flyers team and they’re in tough offensively.

It’s probably a little early to start gearing up for a Blackhawks vs. Flyers Stanley Cup Final, but I don’t think it’s that unlikely.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Well ladies and gents, the time has come for the Conference Finals. We’ve got some unexpected matchups this year and we certainly know that this year won’t be a repeat of the last two years with Detroit vs. Pittsburgh Stanley Cup Final matchups. It’s been a post-season filled with comebacks and improbable performances, that’s for sure. The Western Conference round-up is perhaps not as surprising as the Eastern Conference round-up, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any less interesting.

Here is your Western Conference Final matchup:

San Jose Sharks vs. Chicago Blackhawks: The San Jose Sharks have finally made it past the first two rounds of the post-season and are looking like a team in position to win it all this year, but they’ve got to get by the young and fast Blackhawks squad first. After knocking off the Canucks, the Chicago club is looking tough and rough but they’ll have their work cut out for them against the Sharks. The Sharks are a bigger team for the most part, but the Blackhawks do know how to get traffic to the net and will give Nabokov more than his fair share of headaches.

Of course, the Western Conference Finals will involve the top two seeds in the Conference and could be considered to be going exactly as planned. Through the preceding two rounds and 36 games, it almost looks like this was destined to happen. The Sharks will have to shake off the past demons, while the Blackhawks will have to prove they’re mature and developed enough to hang in the upper echelon of the league.

For the Sharks, the “two Joes” have really come to play as of late. Both Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton have found their respective games in recent days and will be tough for the Hawks to handle. On the other hand, moving big Dustin Byfuglien and handling the Chicago assault offensively will be something Rob Blake and Co. will have to dig in deep for. At the end of the day, however, the Sharks have an edge physically and mentally.

My Prediction: Sharks in 6.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Johan Franzen led the way with a natural hat trick and a total of six points (including another goal) as his Red Wings trounced the San Jose Sharks by a final score of 7-1 on Thursday night.

As brilliant as Franzen’s hat trick was - he scored the three goals in 3:26 minutes in the first period - the Red Wings still find themselves down 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals.

“Mule is one of those guys - like (Joe) Pavelski - when you get hot, you just shoot the puck,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

The series’ fifth game goes on Saturday night and gives the Sharks another chance to take home the series, but the Wings seem energized after the game and may make a series of it yet.

“Maybe this spanking will wake us up to know we’re not out of the woods,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “I’m saying it. We have to respond to it.”

The Sharks haven’t made it into the final four since 2004 and could be put in a precarious position against the more experienced Wings, but history certainly doesn’t favour the team from Detroit.

Thursday’s pounding should give the Wings some confidence, however, and may boost enough spirits in the locker room to make a significant difference overall.

Franzen’s performance broke the team playoff record of five points in a playoff game (shared by Steve Yzerman and Norm Ullman) and tied the team record for goals in a playoff game. He also almost set a playoff record for quickest three goals, but Tim Kerr of the Flyers scored three of his four goals 3:24 apart in a 1985 game.

At any rate, it looks like the Red Wings have something to be proud of for a change in this series. It doesn’t change the overall circumstances much, as they’re still just one game away from being bounced from the post-season. But it should give them plenty of pep for Saturday night and that might be all they need to pull off the upset.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

With the San Jose Sharks up 2-0 in their playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings, it’s safe to say that they smell blood in the water. The Sharks are brimming with a confidence seldom seen in San Jose during playoff time.

Heading into the Joe Louis Arena for the third game in the series, San Jose seems to have shaken off the cobwebs that have hung around in past spring seasons. Their third period comeback in the second game is being touted as prime evidence that they’re in it to win it, but they’ve got a significant challenge on their hands as they roll into Detroit.

Even so, the Sharks believe that sticking with the game plan will lead them to ultimate victory.

“We stuck with it,” Sharks centre Manny Malhotra said of the second game of the series. “We never got down on ourselves. We got behind a couple of times, but we were able to persevere. We believed in ourselves, we believed in the system. We knew that it was going to pay off if we continued to play well, play the same way.”

Of all the reasons for the Sharks’ success thus far, Joe Pavelski’s play has to be at the top of the list. He’s on a five game playoff scoring streak and popped in two power play goals in Sunday’s win. First place in the post-season scoring race, Pavelski will be wearing one hell of a target on Tuesday night at the Joe.

“He’s playing out of his skin right now,” Ryane Clowe said of Pavelski. “He was hungry coming into these playoffs and he’s stepping up, for sure.”

The Red Wings will need to avoid penalties if they expect to stay in the series. “We can blame the refs if we want, but we’ve taken some penalties that were correct,” Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg said. “We’ve just got to be more disciplined, have the puck a little bit more and make them take penalties.”

With the second game of the series on tap Tuesday night, the Sharks will be looking to capitalize and take a strangehold on the series. At this point and time, they are clearly the hungrier team in the series.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs are rolling along and we’ve seen quite a few surprises so far. While we haven’t had the participation we would have liked to have had in the playoff discussion thus far, we’re hoping more of you get involved as things roll towards the Finals. Participating in the conversation is a great way to boost the site’s reputation and to ensure we get more cool contests like the Ryan Kesler contest we have on currently.

Anyways, enough prodding. Here are your matchups for the Western Conference:

Detroit Red Wings vs. San Jose Sharks: The Sharks and Wings will be one of those matchups where either team could walk away with it all. Both teams were heavily favoured going into the post-season, but both teams showed signs of weakness against their respective first round opponents. The Red Wings own the regular season head-to-head record against the Sharks and have the playoff experience, but San Jose has the size advantage. The Sharks have been trying to play a strong puck possession game to emulate the Red Wings in the post-season thus far, too, so it’ll be interesting to see how the San Jose attack does against the team that mastered it.

My Prediction: Red Wings in 6.

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks took some time to get going in the post-season but showed moments of decisive dominance against the Los Angeles Kings. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, showed their stuff knocking off the Predators in six games. To say there’s bad blood between the ‘Nucks and ‘Hawks would be an understatement, as the Canucks will be looking for a measure of revenge against the team that took them out last year. There’s also been considerable bad blood between the teams throughout the year, so this should be a heated matchup that could go the distance. In the end, goaltending will be the difference maker. I know, I know. How profound.

My Prediction: Canucks in 7.

Feel free to list your predictions in the comments section below.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.