Antti Niemi (ice hockey player)

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FinlandFinland  Antti Niemi Ice hockey player
Antti Niemi (ice hockey player)
Date of birth August 29, 1983
place of birth Vantaa , Finland
Nickname Nemo
size 187 cm
Weight 80 kg
position goalkeeper
number # 31
Catch hand Left
Career stations
until 2005 Kiekko-Vantaa
2005-2008 Pelicans Lahti
2008-2009 Rockford IceHogs
2009-2010 Chicago Blackhawks
2010-2015 San Jose Sharks
2012 Pelicans Lahti
2015-2017 Dallas Stars
2017 Pittsburgh Penguins
Florida Panthers
2017-2019 Canadiens de Montréal
2019-2020 Jokerit Helsinki

Antti Niemi (born August 29, 1983 in Vantaa ) is a Finnish ice hockey goalkeeper who was last under contract with Jokerit Helsinki from the Continental Hockey League (KHL) until April 2020 . Previously, he was active in the National Hockey League for eleven years , where he played over 530 games for six different teams. He won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 .

Career

Niemi began his career as a hockey player in his hometown at Kiekko-Vantaa . He played for the team from the juniors. At the age of 15 he guarded the goal of the A-Juniors of the team for the first time, although he actually belonged to the squad of the B-Youth. Until the summer of 2004, the Finn played in the team's youth teams. Nevertheless, he made his debut in the 2002/03 season as a 19-year-old in the professional team, which was playing in the second-rate Mestis at the time. During this season he and the team achieved his greatest success to date when he was able to celebrate the runner-up. Niemi stayed with Kiekko-Vantaa for two more years before he was signed by Pelicans Lahti from the SM-liiga in summer 2005 .

Niemi in the jersey of the Chicago Blackhawks

At the Pelicans he formed a team with Tommi Satosaari over the next three years , with Niemi always holding the post of number 1. After 40 games in his first season, he increased in the following two seasons to 48 and 49 matches, which he played. From year to year the goalkeeper improved his statistics and led the team into the first playoff round in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 game years . In the three years in Lahti Niemi played a total of 137 main round and twelve playoff matches for the team. He achieved a solid average of 2.54 against goals .

Niemi during the warm-up

The performance of the undrafted goalkeeper in the SM-liiga naturally also drew the attention of the scouts of the National Hockey League to him. The Chicago Blackhawks secured the services of the free agent on May 5, 2008 . In his first season in North America , the Blackhawks used the Finn mainly in their farm team , the Rockford IceHogs , in the American Hockey League (AHL). There he should get used to the peculiarities of the smaller ice surfaces in North America. In Rockford, the Finn shared the appearances in goal with Corey Crawford . While Niemi played 38 games, Crawford was between the posts in 47 games. In February 2009, Niemi was appointed to the Chicago NHL squad for the first time and made his debut on February 27 against the Pittsburgh Penguins . By the end of the season he was on the ice in a total of three games. In the following season , the goalkeeper made the permanent leap into the NHL. Since the Blackhawks parted ways with Nikolai Chabibulin shortly before the start of the season , Niemi took the vacant place next to the Frenchman Cristobal Huet . Niemi's performances over the course of the season - including a shutout during his first season outing - ultimately led to him sharing the missions with Huet. In the following playoffs, the Finn finally replaced the French as number 1, his respectable statistics of 26 wins, seven defeats and four defeats after overtime also contributed. Also because of Niemi's achievements, the Chicago Blackhawks won the prestigious Stanley Cup for the first time since 1961 at the end of the playoffs .

After this success, Niemi's contract expired and the Restricted Free Agent could not agree on its extension with the Blackhawks in July 2010. After Chicago did not accept the arbitrator's contract, which was promised to him and endowed with 2.75 million US dollars, in August , Niemi was able to switch to any other team in the league as an unrestricted free agent. Instead, the Hawks secured the services of veteran Marty Turco for $ 1.3 million. At the beginning of September 2010, Niemi finally found a new team. He signed a one-year contract with the San Jose Sharks , which was worth two million US dollars. There he formed a duo with his compatriot Antero Niittymäki . Since Niemi was weak in the 2010/11 season , the two shared the appearances in the first half of the season. Only after a protracted injury to his competitor did the cup winner improve and secure his regular place in goal. This was rewarded on March 1, 2011 with the early extension of his expiring contract for another four years. During those four years, he earned an average of $ 3.8 million.

He spent the lockout of the 2012/13 season at his previous club, the Pelicans Lahti.

In June 2015, the negotiating rights to him for a seven-round draft right were transferred to the Dallas Stars . Thus, the stars were allowed to negotiate with Niemi for a week before he was allowed to contact all franchises as an unrestricted free agent . A few days later, a three-year contract was agreed. As early as June 2017, however, the stars paid out his remaining contract year (buy-out) so that he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as a free agent in July 2017 . There he did not convince at the beginning of the new season, so the Penguins wanted to send him to the AHL via the waiver in October 2017 . From there, however, he was obliged by the Florida Panthers . After only two missions for the Panthers, he came to the Canadiens de Montréal in November 2017, also via the waiver . There the Finn was active in the role of Carey Price's substitute until the summer of 2019 , before he returned to Europe in June 2019 and signed on for a season with the Finnish club Jokerit from the Continental Hockey League .

International

Niemi has never appeared in any international tournament for his home country. He only played three games for Finland in the 2007/08 season as part of the Euro Hockey Tour . Finland finished in second place behind Russia at the end of the four-tournament series . At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , he won the bronze medal with the Finnish national team.

Achievements and Awards

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

    Regular season   Playoffs
season team league Sp S. N U / OT Min. GT SO GTS Sv% Sp S. N Min. GT SO GTS Sv%
2003/04 Kiekko-Vantaa Mestis 19th 1048 47 1 2.52 - - - - - - - -
2003/04 Kiekko-Vantaa A-Jr. SM-liiga 19th 1095 58 2 3.18 - - - - - - - -
2004/05 Kiekko-Vantaa Mestis 38 13 9 2261 95 1 2.52 3 0 1 187 13 0 4.17
2005/06 Pelicans Lahti SM-liiga 40 12 17th 8th 2263 103 3 2.73 91.6 - - - - - - - -
2006/07 Pelicans Lahti SM-liiga 48 18th 21st 7th 2780 119 3 2.57 91.8 6th 2 4th 371 9 1 1.46 95.1
2007/08 Pelicans Lahti SM-liiga 49 26th 14th 6th 2778 109 4th 2.35 92.6 6th 2 3 327 21st 0 3.85 88.3
2008/09 Rockford IceHogs AHL 38 18th 14th 3 2095 85 2 2.43 91.0 2 0 2 115 7th 0 3.65 89.7
2008/09 Chicago Blackhawks NHL 3 1 1 1 141 8th 0 3.40 86.4 - - - - - - - -
2009/10 Chicago Blackhawks NHL 39 26th 7th 4th 2190 82 7th 2.25 91.2 22nd 16 6th 1322 58 2 2.63 91.0
2010/11 San Jose Sharks NHL 60 35 18th 6th 3524 140 6th 2.38 92.0 18th 8th 9 1044 56 0 3.22 89.6
2011/12 San Jose Sharks NHL 68 24 22nd 9 3936 159 6th 2.42 91.5 5 1 4th 318 13 0 2.45 91.4
2012/13 Pelicans Lahti SM-liiga 10 3 5 2 597 31 0 3.11 90.5 - - - - - - - -
2012/13 San Jose Sharks NHL 43 24 12 6th 2581 93 4th 2.16 92.4 11 7th 4th 673 21st 0 1.87 93.0
2013/14 San Jose Sharks NHL 64 39 17th 7th 3740 149 4th 2.39 91.3 6th 3 3 305 19th 0 3.74 88.4
2014/15 San Jose Sharks NHL 61 31 23 7th 3588 155 5 2.59 91.4 - - - - - - - -
2015/16 Dallas Stars NHL 48 25th 13 7th 2654 118 3 2.67 90.5 5 1 3 237 13 0 3.29 86.5
2016/17 Dallas Stars NHL 37 12 12 4th 1729 95 0 3.30 89.2 - - - - - - - -
2017/18 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 3 0 3 0 129 16 0 7.50 79.7 - - - - - - - -
2017/18 Florida panthers NHL 2 0 1 0 59 5 0 5.08 87.2 - - - - - - - -
2017/18 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 19th 7th 5 4th 1027 42 1 2.46 92.9 - - - - - - - -
2018/19 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 17th 8th 6th 2 969 61 0 3.78 88.7 - - - - - - - -
2019/20 Jokerit Helsinki KHL 19th 3 12 4th 1084 58 1 3.21 88.3 1 1 0 60 0 1 1.00 100.0
Mestis total 57 3309 142 2 2.52 3 0 1 187 13 0 4.17
SM-liiga total 147 59 57 23 8418 362 10 2.58 91.9 12 4th 7th 698 30th 1 2.58 91.9
NHL overall 464 242 140 57 26266 1123 36 2.57 91.2 67 36 29 3899 180 2 2.77 90.5

International

Represented Finland at:

year team event result Sp S. N Min GT SO GTS Sv%
2014 Finland Olympia 2nd place, silver Without any effort

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

Web links

Commons : Antti Niemi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cup Winning Goaltender Coming To San Jose
personal data
SURNAME Niemi, Antti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish ice hockey goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Vantaa , Finland