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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Hawks Dump Neimi for Turco

It didn't take long, it seems, for the the Chicago Blackhawks to return to their old ways of miserable mediocrity when Mr. Wirtz was running the show in Chicago. After having successfully built up a Stanley Cup championship team, Chicago hockey fans have all collectively shrieked when they were forced to witness the dismantling of the franchise piece by piece.

Another move made by the new front office regime was to reject the $2.75(USD) million dollar arbitrated earlier by Neimi, a recent Stanley Cup winning goaltender. But the Hawks believe that the decision not to resign Neimi is an upgrade.
With that way of thinking, the Hawks' defense might actually be better with Turco than it was with Niemi. Plus, Bowman got Turco, a three-time All-Star with the Dallas Stars, at a bargain price of $1.3 million. After missing the playoffs the last two seasons, Turco, who turns 35 late this month, just wants to win.
It almost doesn't seem fair to Neimi who played a remarkable 2010 playoff series. Not only was he undercut on his salary, but the Wirtz's can point the finger of blame on their cap situation.

Marty Turco, who was recently ousted from a transitioning Dallas Stars team, was just looking for work and patiently waiting in the background for all of it to unfold.
"It's been almost a dream come true to play for an Original Six team, especially one with the number of Tony Esposito, who's from my hometown, up in the rafters," said Turco, who has a career 2.31 goals-against average, 262 wins and 40 shutouts in 509 regular-season games with the Stars. "I'm uber-excited to be part of this opportunity for them to repeat and me to have a chance at winning a Stanley Cup."
Those are some really good numbers after coming from a depleted Stars team with little or no help in front of him. But you shouldn't feel much sympathy for Neimi who's agent says:
"[Niemi is] disappointed," Zito said. "But you just move forward."
He has already been contacted by a few unspecified teams, but I would have to guess those are all probably from Russia or his native Finland.

[Via: Chicago Sun-Times]

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