Evgeni Nabokov

The San Jose Sharks have inked Stanley Cup winning goaltender Antti Niemi to a one year deal worth $2 million.  Niemi's tremendous play in net helped the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in last season's finals and end Chicago's 49-year Stanley Cup drought.

With the departure of goalie Evgeni Nabokov, Shark fans look toward the 2010-2011 season with a measure of trepidation and uncertainty as well as excitement. For those fans who have a sense of doom or fear about the upcoming season, you aren't jumping to conclusions.

It's not every day your hockey team lets the NHL's winningest regular season goaltender the past 3 years walk with no real "replacement."

You might think that with all of the commotion that the NBA free agency is making, some of the limelight has been taken away from the NHL. However, there are a lot of issues within the NHL that are making fans lose interest.

This is usually the most exciting time of the year, when teams can bolster their rosters to make the jump into the playoffs, or give themselves that extra edge to go all the way.

So far, nothing too crazy has happened and I'm personally more focused on what's going on in other sports.

When long time goaltender Evgeni Nabokov defected to mother Russia, it left the San Jose Sharks with a gigantic hole between the pipes.

Coming off one of his best seasons, the 35 year old net minder put up a 44-16-10 record with three shutouts. He had a goals against average of 2.43 and a save percentage of .922.

Having spent the past seven days hovering near the top of "still available" lists of National Hockey League general managers, spearheading the "goaltender" subheading, unable to agree to terms with any of the 30 North American teams, star crease monster Evgeni Nabokov has agreed to walk toward the tax-free light of mother Russia.

Early Thursday morning, SKA Saint Petersburg, one of the Kontinental Hockey League's premier organisations, announced its signing of the 34-year-old netminder to a four-year contract.

In the third piece of my series, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," assessing the San Jose Sharks offseason, we examine the ugly or non-moves of the summer. (See the following links to read about the team's good and bad decisions in free agency.)

The thing that makes these decisions ugly is the business of the NHL: It is not so much that they were bad moves as they were unfortunate, but necessary, to keep a competitive team under the salary cap.

As frequent San Jose Sharks Bleacher Report readers already know, yours truly has consistently been a critic of the now-former Shark goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

Now sure, when I was younger (during the early part of Nabokov's career) I would chant Nabby's name when attending Sharks games at the HP Pavilion.

But since beginning to play the game competitively in high school, and now into college, I have become much more analytical about the game and consequently much less of a supporter of Nabokov's game.

A lot of things are happening or expected to happen in the NHL right now, here is the latest.

News

Evgeni Nabokov has signed a four-year contract that will pay him $6 mil per season with St. Petersburg of the KHL.

We are hours away from July 1st, and in Canada this day is one of the biggest of the year. It's Canada Day, but it's also on July 1st that the window opens for NHL teams to sign free agents. Of course we could just wait and see where each player signs, but where is the fun in that?

Paired with rampant rumors and logical fits, I will be predicting where some of the big free agents will find a home for next season. All predictions are the bolded teams in the respective players analysis.

With the free agency frenzy just hours away, many NHL general managers are scrambling to make sure their team's offer will be the best one on the table in hopes of landing a big fish to fill the void on their team's current roster.

Front and centre this week will be the future of numerous free agent goaltenders with the likes of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers all fishing for starting goaltenders and backups.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 free agent goaltenders