One and Done
Just the mere thought of Detroit being able to sign Marian Hossa to a long-term deal at somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 million was obscene. The fact he signed with the Blackhawks sucks but he showed he wasn’t interested in signing for a max contract like Edmonton threw at him last year and truly wanted the best combination of playing for a team with a good shot at winning a Cup while also being paid close to what his true value is as a hockey player.
I’m not a big believer in karma but there’s a bit of it here for Red Wings fans who experienced schadenfreude at the expense of Pittsburgh when Hossa left for what he thought were greener pastures last summer.
On the one hand I’m bummed that Detroit wasn’t able to sign Hossa. It would have been great to be able to watch the Wings thumb their nose at Gary Bettman and the salary cap that was put into place for cities that have no following and have done nothing to grow the sport. And I agree with Ken Holland’s stance here that if you can get Hossa to agree to such a low cap hit that you absolutely must find a way to fit him onto your roster.
But Hossa and his agent made the decision moot by signing with Chicago. Living in Chicago I can tell you first hand how much my hatred of the Blackhawks grew this year after being long dormant. It’s tough to hate a team that has been as bad as Chicago has been during my time here. And they had next to no fan base due to the way Bill Wirtz and Bill Pulford ran the organization. The Blackhawk resurgence has taken full bloom this past season and Hossa will help the team continue to improve. I just hope Mike Babcock is right when he talked this past season about how Chicago won’t be able to sign all of their players.
One thing I didn’t like that some Red Wings fans seemed to relish was how Marian Hossa felt like coming to Detroit for one year was his “best shot at winning the Cup”. In retrospect I can say it struck me that he was being a bit of a mercenary. It was a bit different than the previous season when Dallas Drake, who put off retirement, returned to Detroit in order to get one last shot at getting his name on the Cup. Oh I didn’t like signing Drake at the time but have no problem admitting I was completely wrong on that one. I also wasn’t thrilled with how the roster was almost impossible to adjust last year since Hossa’s salary put the team right up against the cap.
That’s not a criticism of Hossa and it’s certainly not a criticism of Ken Holland, more the circumstances as they were. With that being said, when you have a chance to add a guy with Marian Hossa’s skill level you take that chance and do whatever you have to do to get him on your team. And if he would have signed in Detroit I’d be happy to have him back. But I don’t see losing him as being something Detroit can’t overcome. It’s having him sign with the Blackhawks that bugs me more than anything given that they are now a legitimate threat to Detroit for supremacy in the Central Division. Pittsburgh fans know exactly how that feels but they also won the Cup without the guy. Hopefully having him head to Chicago motivates the Red Wings this upcoming season the way it seemed to motivate the Pens in the Stanley Cup Finals.
I hope that Ken Holland will leave a small amount of cap space so the team can call up and develop their younger players. Justin Abdelkader scored two more goals than Marian Hossa in the Stanley Cup Finals. Granted he wasn’t playing against the competition Hossa was and he’ll never have Hossa’s skill level, but he proved he could chip in at the absolute highest level. It would be nice to see what Jakub Kindl could do during what might very well be Nick Lidstrom’s last season.
If there were no salary cap the Red Wings likely would have been able to sign Marian Hossa and keep a dominant team intact. Detroit has done a pretty nice job though developing talent over the years and Ken Holland has done a masterful job manipulating the salary cap to keep that talent in Red Wings uniforms. So they’ve been able to sign homegrown players like Pavel Datsyuk, Hank Zetterberg and Johan Franzen to long-term deals that will make them Red Wings for life.
That’s why I’m not worried so much about being able to replace guys like Marian Hossa and Ty Conklin and Mikael Samuelsson. Detroit won’t replace Hossa’s skill but they have a steady stream of guys like Darren Helm and Jonathan Ericsson and Justin Abdelkader knocking on the door who should be able to start contributing during the regular season and deep into the playoffs.
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