Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny B
I don't agree with a lot of the sentiments regarding Dale Tallon's moves yesterday.
With or without Hossa signing, the Blackhawks were looking at seven RFAs at the end of next season with a projected salary cap decrease up to $4-5 million. It was going to be tough resigning the core of Kane, Toews and Keith (Ladd, in my opinion, is replaceable) and getting under the cap no matter what happened yesterday. Also don't forget Seabrook is an RFA in 2011-12.
Tallon did what he could with next year in mind. Havlat wanted a long-term contract and the Hawks were thinking one or two years. He signed Hossa long-term in exchange for Hossa taking a $2.2 million hit annually.
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Hossa is taking around a 5.2 million hit, not 2.2, annually (I think you just mistyped). So Chicago is basically taking a chance on winning the cup this year in return for losing several players next year. But I'm with you, this is good risk to take.
My take on free agency is that we are seeing the cap do what it did in the NFL, namely increase parity. Detroit and Pittsburgh, the two top teams over the last couple of years, both lost key players thanks to the cap. Chicago will face the same next year. Meanwhile, mediocre teams such as the Flames, Canadiens, and Rangers were able to spend big money to lure in good players in order to try and get to the Wings/Pens levels. Expect more of this over the next few years.