by Joe Lami

SAN JOSE–San Jose Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi becomes a free agent and all the Sharks did was deal his rights to Dallas they have the negotiation rights and that’s what the seventh round pick brought in. The Sharks did the same thing very similar in acquiring former Shark Brad Stuart a few years back with Detroit he was a free agent to be.

The Sharks traded the seventh round pick to Detroit it gives them the negotiation rights for a couple of days or July 1st. Niemi isn’t a Dallas Star yet that should be decided I the next one or two days. There is talk that Sharks general manager Doug Wilson would like to bring him back from Dallas.

If I’m Niemi I don’t want to come back to San Jose last year was a huge mess at the Sharks and he can get out of that mess and be in a tandem with Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen. In Dallas Niemi would share duties Lehtonen he could on the other hand come back to San Jose but that’s something that he would have to think about.

Again San Jose is in kind of a mess they really need to fix a lot of things over there and Niemi was kind of treated poorly towards the end of the season he shared netminder work with the Sharks goaltender Alex Stalock. They stopped playing Stalock down the stretch and he looked like he was going to exit towards the end of the season but there is a chance that he does come back to San Jose.

The Sharks signed 25 year old Troy Grosenick and would he share the net with Stalock if Niemi doesn’t come back? The Sharks more than likely will try and sign a unrestricted free agent or a trade. They need to pick up a viable number one goalie and a viable option. Grosenick is a couple years down the road to make up with the big club.

Grosenick is 25 years old, he signed a two year deal with a cap of $600,000 he will play for the Sharks AHL minor league affiliate the SJ Barracuda and he could be called up by the Sharks if need be. Grosenick signed a one way deal and that’s the most interesting part of this deal because Stalock has one year remaining and it might seem like that Stalock might be done as a goalie in San Jose and the Sharks turnover Grosenick to the back up position.

Joe Lami covers the NHL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below