Hossa, Kopecky to Chicago, Conklin to St. Louis

Did they really all need to stay in the division?

The first four hours of free agency have brought about three Red Wing defections; one in the expected variety, two a little more shocking.

One of the first big signings of the day was Marian Hossa inking a 12-year deal in Chicago at an average cap hit of $5.2 million. No word on whether or not this contract is front-loaded like Franzen or Zetterberg’s, but it does take him to age 42, so I’ve got to think it probably is. UPDATE: Yes it is. Almost all of the money is due out the first eight years of the deal.

Now, I had written that I was expecting Hossa to walk and all, but when I heard this, I think the first words out of my mouth were come on. I just don’t like that he’s going to be in the division for the rest of his career. And to a contending team.

I’m not going to be bitter, but I think the terms of his deal — it being a long term cap-dodging deal that Holland has made famous, only about $1 million more than Detroit offered — is probably going to lead to people throwing out the dreaded t-word. Traitor.

I don’t think so. I’m going to wish him well. No one expected he’d be able to stick around when Detroit signed him last season. The fact that he was willing to even talk gave Detroit fans too much hope, but it’s a compliment to the guy that he is. He wanted to make it work, and he came down in his price a lot. I think this Chicago deal is a little bit of that too. He could have got a long deal (maybe 7/8 years) for $7-8 million. Rumors say Los Angeles would have loved to hand that out. But Chicago has a good young core, Hossa can be part of a contender for a long time and not do too much salary cap damage, like some other players.. Brian Campbell is one, but I’m not going to mention any names.

But I just hope Hossa knows the situation Chicago’s in. They’re going to run into cap trouble especially next offseason. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Andrew Ladd highlight their free agent crop for next season, and 2011 boats Brent Seabrook and Dustin Byfuglien. They have a one-year window to make a strong push this season, but over the next two seasons they’re going to need to do some serious wheeling and dealing. And I just don’t think Dale Tallon is much of a capologist.

I, for one, am glad this contract is not on the Detroit books. I don’t want Hossa/Zetterberg/Franzen tying that much money up if they’re in their 40s. That’s just a recipe for disaster. I’m upset that Hossa’s gone either way, but in the long-term, this is the better solution.  And it was perhaps unavoidable, but both sides made some serious cuts to try to get Hossa on board.

Hours later, Hossa’s Slovakian pal Tomas Kopecky signed in Chicago, two years with a $1.2 million cap hit. Another deal I’m glad Detroit walked away from — that’s too much for the role he played on Detroit. However, he does have some upside and could be given a chance to have a regular spot on Chicago’s 2nd or 3rd line.

He was among Detroit’s prospects when I first started following, so it is weird to see him walk away. He was pretty solid in Detroit when he was healthy, and I feel bad that he never got to be a big part of a long playoff run. He’s big and physical, which matched up well with Detroit’s small, speedy guys on the bottom two lines. And he showed at times that he has a pretty decent set of hands, but never got an extended look on a scoring line.

I wish them both luck, 76 out of 82 games per season.

The next news nugget comes courtesy of St. Louis, where Ty Conklin has signed a two-year deal at a reported $1.3 cap hit. Conklin indicated that he might come back, but Detroit decided to go with Jimmy Howard as the team’s backup.

Good for Conklin, I think. I still think he could have gotten a bigger contract from a team that needs a starting goalie (like Colorado, before they signed Craig Anderson) but this gives him a chance to be a 1B guy on an up-and-coming team, and it allows him to actually unpack because he has a two-year deal. Chris Mason will likely be the starter, but he won’t have to play as much as he did in the second half of the year with Conklin in the fold.

I think the Conklin deal worked out as good as it could have for Detroit. Last offseason, I was hellbent on Howard being the backup, and immediately resented the Conklin signing because they signed a good goalie for cheap and told Howard he would have to win a spot in camp.. which he didn’t, even though his numbers were much better. However, Osgood fell so hard early in the season I was glad Conklin was on board. He was steady until the very end of the year, when Osgood picked his game back up. It would have been a lot of pressure for Howard to step in that way, so let’s hope Osgood has a little better start to next season.

No Detroit moves yet. I’d be shocked if they did something today. They’re going to need to wait until the bargain bin, I think they’ll work on Hudler before talking to any free agents. I’m seeing some fans getting restless on message boards.. but I ask, when does Detroit ever fill every hole they have in the first five hours of free agency? The Hossa thing was freakish, he approached Detroit.. I don’t see something like that happening in the first few days of free agency agian.

So far, from the guys we discussed on this blog.. Mike Knuble signed in Washington for slightly more than Detroit would have offered, and Joel Ward re-signed in Nashville for pretty cheap. Plenty of fish still out there, I’m alright with being patient.