Per TSN’s Gord Miller, the San Jose Sharks have signed Niklas Hjalmarsson to a 4yr/14M offer sheet. The Chicago Blackhawks will have seven days to sign him.
Considering Dan Girardi just received a healthy 3.35 annual salary over his next four seasons, Hjalmarsson deserves at least the same amount and will make 3.5 million annually.
The Sharks looked like they would sign Sergei Gonchar earlier in the offseason but will choose a younger, less proven option. If the Blackhawks do not match, Hjalmarsson will join Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, Dan Boyle and Jason Demers as fantasy-relevant offensive minded defenseman.
Hard to tell how this effects his value. Stuck behind Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook is likely worse than essentially Dan Boyle and every season in his career he has improved his numbers. At 23-years-old he still has plenty of room to grow and reach his ceiling, the question is how high that ceiling will be.
We will continue to follow this story as we have with all of the Blackhawks cap casualties.
