During the morning skate in Vancouver on Thursday, Sharks goaltender Antero Niittymaki suffered a groin injury and was unable to back-up teammate Antti Niemi in their contest against the Canucks. The team immediately placed the veteran goalie on the Injured Reserve and then signed UBC goaltender, Jordan White, to a one-game tryout, since they were unlikely to get one of their farm team goalies up to Vancouver in time for the game.Niittymaki, since he was placed on the IR yesterday, he will be expected to miss at least a week of action, likely given all the time he needs to get the groin muscle back up to 100% before the stretch run.
White did not see any action on Thursday night, as the game was a close one, a 2-1 victory for the Sharks in the shootout.
Niittymaki only trails his teammate in hockey pool points by 5, having the same number of wins as Niemi, but with no shutouts or assists, where Niemi has put some numbers in that column. Niittymaki has made 22 appearances with the Sharks this season, compiling a 12-6-3 record for 24 points this season, good enough for 197th in the pool rankings and 30th among all goalies in the league, suggesting that he would be better than some of the starters in the league this year.
In the draft, Neil B. currently has Niittymaki on his team, but a lack of consistent starts for his goaltender is one of the reasons why Neil finds himself down in 14th position (through Thursday night's action), 2 points out of 13th and 44 points out of the money. Neil is tied for 9th in points from his goaltenders this season, having 70 points from the crease this year, which isn't too bad at all, just not good enough to push his team a little higher in the standings.Link to the Injury/News Page
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