On July 1, the Blackhawks traded Andrew Ladd to the Atlanta Thrashers for Ivan Vishnevskiy and a second-round draft pick in 2011. On July 9, Niklas Hjalmarsson was signed to an offer sheet by the San Jose Sharks, though the Blackhawks matched the offer on July 12, thereby retaining his services and forgoing compensation from the Sharks for signing a restricted free agent. This signing again put Chicago against the salary cap wall, and as a result forced the club to forego resigning goaltender Antti Niemi, who had filed for arbitration.