As a rookie a few months ago, goaltender Antti Niemi shut down the San Jose Sharks, helping the Blackhawks to a sweep of the Western Conference Finals on their way to becoming Stanley Cup champions. Because of salary cap drama, the Sharks were able to sign Niemi to a one-year, $2 million contract on Thursday. Earlier in the offseason an arbitrator said the Blackhawks should give the Finnish goaltender $2.75 million for next season, but the team chose to go for cheaper veteran Marty Turco instead.

The Sharks had already parted ways with goalie Evgeni Nabokov and signed another Finnish goalie, Antero Niittymaki.  Niitymaki has played six NHL seasons, previously with the Flyers and Lightning. “Our goal this summer was to create the best goaltending unit we could and we feel we have successfully done that,” said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson. “Antti’s play last season speaks for itself.”

The two Finns are likely to split time. Niittymaki’s never played more than 52 games in a season, and has appeared in only two playoff games in his career. He’s got a career saves percentage of .903 and a 2.98 career GAA. Niemi’s only played in 42 career regular season games, but went 16-6 in the postseason.  His career stats are a little better than Niittymaki’s (.910/2.32 regular season, .910/2.60 playoffs).

Versus analyst/former goalie Darren Eliot loves the move:

Niemi might be the perfect fit for the Sharks. e is consistent more so than acrobatic — the antithesis of what they’ve had for years with Evgeni Nabokov. And he has a Stanley Cup on his resume. Signing Niemi means, once again, the Sharks are viable as a top team to win the Western Conference.