Before the veteran goalie becomes a Wing however, he (Nabokov) must first pass through waivers which very well could prevent him from ever putting on a Wings sweater.
Nabokov, who is 35, will officially be placed on waivers at noon on Friday and remain on there until noon on Saturday. During this time any team can put a claim in on Nabokov.
Now given the contract that Nabokov signed which is for one year at $570,000 which prorated amounts to $250,000 for the rest of the season Nabokov all of a sudden becomes very attractive to other teams in need of a goalie. Even the Wings know that the chances seems slim that Nabokov is brought on board.
“I wouldn’t get my hopes too high; the contract is peanuts,” one source said. “Anyone in need of a goaltender will put in a claim. Somebody in the West might say, ‘I don’t want Detroit to pick him up.'”
According to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com, Wings GM Ken Holland declined to comment any further on the signing…
“He’s nobody’s player until noon on Saturday.”
Here’s what Mike Babcock had to say following the Wings’ 4-3 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues Thursday night…
“He’s not our player, so when he becomes our player then I’ll talk about him,” Babcock said. “In the meantime, as an organization, even though we’ve signed him, until he clears waivers and becomes a Red Wing there’s no sense talking about him.”
And like myself, many Wings players were kind of surprised by the move…
“That’s out of my hands, that’s up to management, what they think,” goalie Jimmy Howard said. “If he can help us, he can help us.”
Kris Draper doubts that Nabokov will clear waivers.
“That was a bit of a surprise, but there’s still a long way in the whole process before that becomes a reality that he’s here,” Draper said. “I don’t think there’s too many teams who are going to be willing to help us out (by not claiming him).
“You just have to look down the hall here (at the Blues) and see what happens with a team signing a player and him going through waivers. We’ll have to see what the process is.”
Holland wouldn’t elaborate on why he is pursuing Nabokov and only said that he is happy with where the goaltending is at right now. Judging from the contract that Nabokov signed it would now seem that Osgood would be coming back by season’s end and that Howard’s knee injury isn’t serious.
Nabokov spent his entire 10 year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks going 293-178-29-37 (W-L-T-OTL) with 50 shutouts. According to Khan he is the franchise’s all-time leader in games, wins and shutouts and has a career goals-against average of 2.39 and save percentage of .912.
Critics of Nabokov have set their sights on the fact that the Sharks haven’t advanced past the Western Conference finals with Nabokov in goal. Nabokov is 40-38, with a 2.29 GAA and .913 save percentage in the postseason.\
Nabokov was not brought back with the Sharks due to salary cap restraints and was made a free agent. After not signing with any NHL team he went back home to Russia to play in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg where he signed a four year contract at $24 million dollars. SKA St. Petersburg ended up terminating his contract due to “family reasons”.
Source: Mlive.com
