Hossa to Pitt (e2) Yeh, indeed. The pending UFA would pretty much be the ideal fit in Pitt. What I am hearing is that IF the Pens could get Hossa to agree to some sort of extension, Jordan Staal + could be the pricetag. Big IF. However,Hossa could become Crosby's Kurri pretty damn quick.
Is he hearing this from the voices in his head? The Penguins have to tow the line as much as possible before the new arena, even with all the sell-outs Forbes estimated they still don't rake in that much revenue relative to the rest of the league.
``Evgeni Malkin will need a long-term contract and probably be looking at the $7-$8.7 million range a year long-term, a bump of $3+ million.
``Marc-Andre Fleury will be a restricted free agent
``Important players will be unrestricted: Ryan Malone, Mark Eaton, Brooks Orpik....Whether the Pens want them back (or how much interest they might command on an open market) is a whole 'nother issue). The point is though, if they're gone the team is going to have to find somewhat veteran or good players to fill their roles.
Still, in the most foolish thing I've done on this blog since sourcing wikipedia, let's acknowledge this "rumor" as a legitimate one.
No doubting Hossa and Crosby (or Malkin and Hossa) would make for a dynamic offensive duo that would be very frightening. But this isn't your Xbox360 and it's not so simple just to pluck elite wingers.
Also, why would Atlanta want to trade him? Sure there's a risk of losing him as a UFA, but that's a risk coach/GM Don Waddell has taken---and got burned on many times watching players leave his club as UFAs. Also, after a terrible start that cost Bob Hartley his job the Tbombs are up to .500 hockey (43 points in 43 games). That may not be a total playoff pace, but they’ve been one of the conference’s better statistical team for the past 30-35 games and may not want to deal away one of their best players.
What exactly would they want in addition to Staal? If it was a non-roster more long-term project like Alex Goligoski, Jonathan Filewich I could see the Penguins maybe making that deal. If they were holding out for a guy like Kris Letang or Colby Armstrong then I don’t think that would ever work. Plus Shero has said he’s not interested in trading draft choices and has stressed how he wishes to continue to build the organization from within with those picks, so I doubt he’s going to move a first round pick or Angelo Esposito.
And then there’s the issue of compensation for Hossa. On the open market he could get a deal like Danny Briere or Scott Gomez got, a huge frontloaded deal that might see him stand to earn $10 million next season. As hinted to already, the Penguins are in no condition to pay open market value for Hossa or any other player than Crosby or Malkin.
As most sane folks realize, there are a lot of factors that would have to break exactly the right way. And that’s assuming that Shero is willing to pull the trigger on a deal to send Jordan Staal out of the organization. Sure he’s having a sophomore slump this season, but he’s 19 and is going on 200 NHL games (preseason, regular season and postseason) by the time he’s not a teenager. Look at some statistical performances guys like Joe Thornton or Vincent Lecavalier had in their first two seasons at 18 or 19 years of age.
In conclusion, Eklund is an idiot.
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Welcome to our world...That boob had every Russian except the corpse of Leonid Brezhnev going to the Caps in the off season.
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