{"id":46335,"date":"2019-06-05T13:42:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T17:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=46335"},"modified":"2019-06-05T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T17:50:36","slug":"antti-niemi-khl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/06\/05\/antti-niemi-khl\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Montreal Canadiens Goalie Antti Niemi Signs with Jokerit Helsinki"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jokerit Helsinki of the KHL have signed free agent goaltender Antti Niemi<\/a><\/strong> to a one-year contract. The team also announced that they have re-signed Sami Lepisto<\/a><\/strong> to a one-year deal with an additional option year.<\/p>\n

\n

#Jokerit<\/a> is delighted to announce that the club has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with goalie Antti Niemi<\/a> and a one-year contract extension with @SamiLepisto<\/a> with the option to extend for another year. #KHL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/OqWEPWHFeE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jokerit Helsinki (@Jokerit_EN) June 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Antti Niemi Signs With Jokerit Helsinki<\/h1>\n

Jokerit pick-up a veteran goaltender who will be looking to forget last season.\u00a0Over his 11-year NHL career, Niemi has been all around the league spending time with the San Jose Sharks<\/a>, Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>, Dallas Stars<\/a>, Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, Florida Panthers<\/a>, and Montreal Canadiens<\/a>. He has put up a 242-140-57 career record in 464 career appearances with 443 career NHL starts. He also has a 2.57 goals-against-average, .912 save percentage, and 36 shutouts. Niemi has a career 36-29 record in 67 career Stanley Cup Playoff games, with a 2.77 goals-against-average, .905 save percentage, and two shutouts.<\/p>\n

Last season, Niemi played in 17 games, all starts, for the Canadiens. He put up a 8-6-2 record with a 3.78 goals-against-average and .887 save percentage. His best season was during the 2009-10 season when he led the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup. That Year Niemi put up a 26-7-4 record with a 2.25 goals-against-average, .912 save percentage and seven shutouts.<\/p>\n

With the move, Niemi returns to his home country of Finland.<\/p>\n

What This Means for the Future<\/span><\/p>\n

Niemi will look to bounce back after coming off the worst season of his career with the Canadiens. He was unlikely to get another NHL job after a rough season in Montreal. Neimi is 35 years old and has already played 11 seasons. He’s given up at least three goals on average over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: SUNRISE, FL – DECEMBER 28: Goaltender Antti Niemi #37 of the Montreal Canadiens warms up prior to the game against the Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jokerit Helsinki of the KHL have signed free agent goaltender Antti Niemi to a one-year contract. The team also announced that they have re-signed Sami Lepisto to a one-year deal with an additional option year. #Jokerit is delighted to announce that the club has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with goalie Antti Niemi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":42626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3271,2003],"tags":[340,3141,517,955],"class_list":["post-46335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-european-leagues","category-khl","tag-antti-niemi","tag-jokerit","tag-khl","tag-nhl-news"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}