The Marian Hossa Sweepstakes

With the Penguins playoff dreams now shattered, there are a lot of pens fans hoping for the return of Hossa next season. They claim that Hossa would be willing to take a pay cut in order to play with the pens again. I don't believe this. Hossa had an excellent playoffs, and his value has currently peaked. If he signs with the Pens at a discounted rate for one season, he becomes vulnerable to taking a paycut the next season. If Hossa has any sort of sensible agent, he will be looking to sign a contract similar to Chris Drury or Daniel Briere's last summer. He could easily make 56 million over the next 7 years. So where will he end up?

Pittsburgh could potentially resign him to a full and proper contract. This would mean having no room left to resign Malkin, but after Malkin's poor final round performance, maybe you don't need him anymore. You could trade Malkin away for a tonne of prospects, or you could just let him get signed as an RFA and get shit loads of compensation.

The canucks are one team that never get mentioned in the Marian Hossa sweepstakes... except on this blog. The Canucks currently have a new GM with loads of expectations on his shoulders. Dave Nonis was fired because he was unwilling to make a deal to bring a player to vancouver. He only made trades that were completely lopsided in vancouver's favour, such as the luongo trade. The new GM will have to do something drastic, unless he wants to suffer the same type of ridicule that Nonis endured from the Vancouver media. The Sedin's would play amazing with Hossa. They were able to give anson Carter 30 goals one season; imagine what they could do with Hossa. They are the deadliest set-up combination in the game, they just need somebody that can finish the damn play.

There is some speculation that Hosssa could head to Montreal. Montreal has a lot of cap space with Smolinski and Ryder being UFA's. Hossa has played in Canada before and didn't mind the spotlight that followed playing in a canadian city. It is very plausible that he could end up in montreal. If the Habs don't get Hossa, they will likely add another big name this summer.

There are a lot of rumours that Hossa could end up in NY. Ny has cap space to sign him if they allow some of Avery, Jagr, Straka or Shanahan to walk. If they want to keep these players, they would probably have to part with either Drury or Gomez. This would not be the end of the world for them, seeing as they were signed as UFA's, and no players were traded in acquiring gomez and drury.

The Boston Bruins are also rumoured to be interested in Hossa. They have won the chuck Kobasew sweepstakes already, and are hoping to get a respectable winger to compliment the BC born superstar.

-hark