Blackhawks Sign Former Red Wing Giant
Get ready for 12 years of Marian Hossa
By EAMONN BRENNAN
Updated 3:02 PM CST, Wed, Jul 1, 2009
The Blackhawks tasted success in 2008-09, but they weren't quite good enough to beat the rival Detroit Red Wings, whose players were almost uniformly faster, stronger, more skilled and all around just better. Even a casual hockey fan could notice the gulf between both teams on the ice, and it was borne out in the Western Conference Finals. The Blackhawks are young and good, but they need to get much better if they expect to win a Stanley Cup -- or beat the Red Wings.
Then again, if you can't beat them, sign them.
The old cliche is repurposed today, as the Hawks signed former Red Wings right winger Marian Hossa to a jaw-droppingly long deal: $62.4 million over 12 years. An average of that figure, $5.2 million, will count against the Blackhawks' cap for the next 12 seasons.
It seems like an absurdly long deal to give a 30-year-old player, but the intent is simple: the Hawks want a powerful, All-Star caliber forward to play alongside Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews for the next decade. Ironically, the signing of Hossa makes that goal more difficult. It will be tricky to sign both Kane, Toews, and defenseman Duncan Keith to long-term deals at the end of next summer, when all three players' contracts expire, though not impossible. But it will require some good old-fashioned NHL salary cap magic, the details of which are almost mind-numbingly dense.
The signing also means Chicago will wave goodbye to talented winger Martin Havlat, who was arguably the Hawks' best player in 2008-09. Havlat was smart and effective and well-liked by his teammates (not to mention fans), and though he is less talented than Hossa he will be missed.
But so go pro sports: If Hossa is as effective as his contract implies, he too will be a fan favorite in no time. And if he helps the Blackhawks get over the hump for the first time in decades, well, "favorite" won't go far enough to describe it.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jul 1, 2009 1:46 PM CST
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