News Article: What if the Red Wings had signed Marian Hossa instead of Johan Franzen in 2009?

[Frk It]

Holland offered both players contracts in April. Franzen signed his, Hossa did not.

This implies Holland intended to sign both and figure out how to fit them under the cap later (unless I am missing a key detail). With that in mind what changed with Holland to where he was no longer willing to keep a key goal scorer and make moves for it to happen?

After doing a little digging, it was pretty much a low-ball offer.

He offered the same cap-hit as Hudler got essentially, but it was for 10 years, would have been another one of the cap-circumventing deals.

Sportsnet has learned Marion Hossa has turned down a contract offer from the Red Wings that would have kept the all-star with the Red Wings for the next 10 years.
A source compared the length of the deal to the deals Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg signed. It's believed the deal-breaker was the average salary which fell between $3.75 million and $4 million.

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/07/all_signs_point_to_marian_hoss.html

 

[Henkka]

After doing a little digging, it was pretty much a low-ball offer.

He offered the same cap-hit as Hudler got essentially, but it was for 10 years, would have been another one of the cap-circumventing deals.

Yep.

Cap problems (thanks for the success) forced him to low-balling. There was no other choise. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Lidström, Rafalski, Kronwall, Stuart were still on the books with market-price contracts. Goalies were with bargain price (Ozzie+Jimmy 1.4M + 700k ELC).

People can whine for next hundred years about this Hossa non-signing, but salary cap facts doesn't change the thigns how did they went. Hossa wanted more money and Wings didn't have the space give it.

Hawks did offer him 7.9M yearly salary for 8 years on that summer. No chance for Wings to match that, even there was the tail-end discount for 5.275M caphit. It still had a huge recapture risk, which the Hawks did avoid in a laughable way at this summer.

 

[Heaton]

I also stand by my original assessment back then that Hossa wasn't any better than Franzen on this team at the time and was especially not more valuable.

I still contend the Wings could've signed both if they had more foresight with Hudler, Filppula and Cleary. I'll always stand by my theory that you sign your stars first, then worry about your depth, Holland chose the latter and it didn't work out. At the time I was in full agreement with him.

 

[Winger98]

I also stand by my original assessment back then that Hossa wasn't any better than Franzen on this team at the time and was especially not more valuable.

I still contend the Wings could've signed both if they had more foresight with Hudler, Filppula and Cleary. I'll always stand by my theory that you sign your stars first, then worry about your depth, Holland chose the latter and it didn't work out. At the time I was in full agreement with him.

It wouldn't have been such a bad decision then if Holland had been able to keep his depth, but Hudler and Sammy ran off to other teams, too.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

It wouldn't have been such a bad decision then if Holland had been able to keep his depth, but Hudler and Sammy ran off to other teams, too.

Cleary was still there.

We could have been rid of him and saved us those last couple of seasons...

 

[Winger98]

Cleary was still there.

We could have been rid of him and saved us those last couple of seasons...

but we lost Hudler and Sammy that summer. Would we have been better off if we had some how cut Sammy, Cleary, and Hudler loose and kept Franzen and Hossa? Maybe, but I don't think we lose much of a step those first couple of years if we only keep one of Franzen/Hossa but manage to hold onto all of the other three.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

but we lost Hudler and Sammy that summer. Would we have been better off if we had some how cut Sammy, Cleary, and Hudler loose and kept Franzen and Hossa? Maybe, but I don't think we lose much of a step those first couple of years if we only keep one of Franzen/Hossa but manage to hold onto all of the other three.

I was more dreaming than arguing for it.

Just because of what Cleary turned out to be once he stopped being a useful player.

 

[Henkka]

Cleary was signed year before this Franzen vs. Hossa decision. And before Hossa even joined us. And then he was totally worth of his contract.

Cleary signings after that 4-year extension are debatable, but not the first bigger contract he got.

Just worthless try to re-write history. Some things were done you can't change afterwards.

 

[Heaton]

Cleary was signed year before this Franzen vs. Hossa decision. And before Hossa even joined us. And then he was totally worth of his contract.

Cleary signings after that 4-year extension are debatable, but not the first bigger contract he got.

Just worthless try to re-write history. Some things were done you can't change afterwards.

Nope, he was signed in January. His contact should have waited.

 

[19 for president]

I don't really think Hossa over Franzen makes the Wings a significantly better team. IE I don't think it really makes a difference in our final standings over the years. This team started to fall apart the moment Lids retired and Kronner broke down. You improve this team's D and our forwards both then and now would look a lot better. As stated in previous posts, losing out on Suter was the deal the most hurt the Wings.

If you argue that possibly having Hossa & Franzen over Hudler/Sammy/Cleary then I think you can make an argument for this team being a bit better.

 

[Pavels Dog]

After doing a little digging, it was pretty much a low-ball offer.

He offered the same cap-hit as Hudler got essentially, but it was for 10 years, would have been another one of the cap-circumventing deals.



http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/07/all_signs_point_to_marian_hoss.html

If Hossa really wanted to stay in Detroit that offer was likely at least enough to start serious discussions. The way things go is usually an offer is made, then a counter-offer, and so on until the parties agree. It's very possible that Detroit would have needed to not only match, but exceed Chicago's offer in order to keep Hossa around.