"Just once I'd like to see one of them free agents say at one of them news conferences that he's switching teams because they backed a Brink's truck up to his door. They always say they're glad to go where they're wanted. They're glad to go where the money is," the white-haired baseball skipper once opined about his sport's free agents. But I'm sure his sentiments would have applied for other sports, as well. It's just that, at the time, baseball was far and away the leader when it came to player movement.
Well, you'd think that Sparky would have dearly loved what Marian Hossa did last week , even if others around the NHL apparently have a problem with it.
Hossa, a superstar forward, joined the Red Wings for the 2008-09 season, signing a one-year deal worth around $7.4 million. Whatever the deal's true worth, we know that it's at least one dollar less than what Nick Lidstrom makes, since there's an unspoken rule -- actually, sometimes it IS spoken -- that Lidstrom, for the moment, must be the highest-paid Red Wing. It was widely reported that Hossa could have received more money -- much more money, in fact, plus long-term security -- had he signed elsewhere. Edmonton was a reported suitor, among others. The Oilers, folks say, were prepared to offer Hossa, 29, a nine-year pact worth about $81 million.
But Hossa stuck with the Red Wings, and for the purest of reasons -- at least what you'd think would be considered pure -- that is, he wanted to win the Stanley Cup, and sooner rather than later. And we know that Hossa is no dumb-dumb, for when he looked around the league, he saw no team as loaded and as primed for another successful run at the Cup than the Red Wings. Smart man -- or at least one brimming with common sense.
Yet Hossa took some hits in the wake of signing the deal, from those who complained that while on the surface it looked like a selfless move, what Hossa was really doing was just going for his brass ring, while at the same time putting himself back on the free market next summer. In other words, Marian Hossa was trying to have his cake and eat it, too. In the process, the complainers said, Hossa was turning free agency on its ear and making the strong stronger, etc.
File this under the "some people are never happy" category.
One of the critics, a writer from Toronto, had his words dripping with jealousy and bitterness, going so far as to take a potshot at Joe Louis Arena, describing it as old and smelly and some other unpleasant adjectives. Kind of like what Maple Leaf Gardens was, right -- before it was belatedly replaced?
No matter how you try to slice and dice it, I don't know how you can ever diss a guy for taking less money in the name of winning.
What if, God forbid, Hossa suffers a serious injury next season? That would significantly impact his worth. Or, frankly, what if he just has a bad season, production-wise? Again, that would make it tougher for him to command the kind of dollars he could have gotten last week. So don't tell me about being selfish or upsetting the apple cart.
I was as surprised as anyone when Hossa became a Wing, because I hadn't heard that he was on Detroit's radar screen. Even Red Wings management, GM Ken Holland confessed, figured Hossa would be too expensive to sign to a long-term deal, because of its impact on locking up Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen next summer. But a one-year deal made Hossa infinitely more attractive -- and affordable. And it was Hossa, Holland said, who angled for the one-year contract, not the Red Wings.
Now, even if Hossa had the intention of winning a Cup AND being a free agent next summer, so what? He's playing within the rules. And he's still taking a risk by doing so, even if the complainers want to conveniently leave that part out of their discussion.
1 comment:
Hossa was just being smart. As a pro athlete, he already as tons of money, and I think he would rather win the Cup than take the money from a subpar team such as Edmonton. Even though people might get down on him for doing playing on a one-year contract in Detroit, he is doing what every other hockey player would want to do- win the Stanley Cup. And, if he took the money, people would look at him as selfish and think that he is just playing for the money, and not to win. Hossa will really add a lot to the Red Wings, and we were actually alright without him, but he will make us that much better. If we stay healthy, I cannot see how any team in the NHL could be better than us.
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