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I don't understand people's bitterness at Hossa for joining the Wings, especially Pens fans. It wasn't as though he threw himself out there to the highest bidder because he was all about making mega bucks. He settled for less, to play for a tried and proven champion- the end. The liklihood of the Wings winning a second cup in a row is obviously much less, and I don't think that signing a 1 year deal is going to get Hossa that ring he claims he really wants. With next summer's UFAs taking up a lot of $$, what are his chances of being resigned next summer (assuming he has a solid season)?

Hossa is european. Europeans have a different value set than the typical pimple faced NA based player.

The suggestion it was a lazy move reflects the lack of understanding about european player values. Look at Hasek as another example. Made $100,000.00 last year but wanted to play for Detroit.

Sather cut his teeth as a GM by convincing players to think that way.

Congrats to Detroit for developing the 'TEAM' and to Hossa for valuing it.

I have read so many negative comments from Penguin fans about Hossa leaving. Well, it hasn't been just Hossa leaving but a mass exodus. Do you think there may be something wrong in the dressin room with so many players jumping ship? Perhaps the leadership or lack there of?

The Wings room is one of the most stable in hockey now and through all of the Stevie Y years. Veteran leadership is needed to guide any sports club... not a 19 year old kid who knows nothing about leadership.

Lazy move by Hossa

With Detroit he can disappear on most nights and it won't likely affect the final outcome of the game.

Hossa had an opportunity to go to a team and be the big superstar. Instead he took the easy route. This guy definitely doesn't thrive on pressure.

Im sad because i like the canucks and they gave away naslund

The highest paid player is Lidstrom at 7.5 mil. There is a unwritten rule that no one can make more than Lidstrom. Franzen and Zetterburg have yet to receive their payday. Both need to be resigned next year. But, don't be surpirsed if both accept lower than market value to stay. Most, if not all, have bought into the organization philosophy and that is why Detroit is continually a top teir team. The Red Wings are the only positive thing in Detroit. Survival.

Living in Renfrew County and having seen Hossa play (Senators), the man puts on a display all regular season long, then like many great regular season players, tanks in the play offs, time will tell. GOWINGSGO!

As a Red Wings fan I am amazed at what Holland & the crew come up with year after year. This is truely a first class organization. Players love playing in Detroit and it shows. If you love hockey-this is where you want to be!!

RE John
"Will someone post the Red Wings' salaries and cap info? How can they have all of these stars?"

John, the reason Detroit can have all of these stars is through development, loyalty, and professionalism as an organization. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Kronwall are all home grown talent, with Lidstrom and Datsyuk beging drafted in the later rounds. The organization has a reputation for rewarding their home grown players whom in turn remain loyal to the organization...ask Steve Yzerman. You cannot find a more efficent and professioally run organization in all of sports...that is why high profile free agents want to keep sihnig with Detroit, for less money to boot. ie Hossa. As it stands the Redwings are still 3.6 million dollars under the 2008-2009 salary cap. You will never see the Wings sign a player like Jeff Finger and give him a 3.75 million dollar a year deal. Detroit operates on a strick salary grid. This is why the Wings insisted on not paying Hossa a salary above Lidstrom. Lidstrom is the best player, and therefore he makes the most money. If the Wings were to give a salary of 3.75 million to a average defencemen like Finger, what would Lidstrom or Ralfalski now be worth in comparison? 9-10 million a season each.

John,
I believe the Wings are 3.5 mil below the cap right now, it goes up this summer. When you mention how do they have these stars, it's a matter of several taking less than market value to stay there, like Hossa did by joining. Lidstrom the capn, makes 7.6, team max. The crunch comes next summer when Zetterberg and Franzen are UFA.
Ken Holland has to hope the cap increases again, or he sheds salary down the roster.
A site such as Red Wings Central will show their salary plan.

Not all their big stars and high producers are making as much as you would think:

Marian Hossa $7,450,000
Nicklas Lidstrom $7,450,000
Pavel Datsyuk $6,700,000
Brian Rafalski $6,000,000
Brad Stuart $3,750,000
Niklas Kronwall $3,000,000
Dan Cleary $2,800,000
Henrik Zetterberg $2,650,000
Tomas Holmstrom $2,250,000
Kris Draper $1,583,333
Chris Osgood $1,416,667
Andreas Lilja $1,250,000
Mikael Samuelsson $1,200,000
Jiri Hudler $1,015,000
Johan Franzen $941,667
Kirk Maltby $883,333
Ty Conklin $750,000
Brett Lebda $650,000
Everyone else is $500,000 or less

Zetterberg & Franzen are unrestricted free agents next year and Holmstrom the year after; they are planning ahead to have money to tie them up for several years. That's whey they couldn't offer Hossa a competitive multi-year contract. Amazing he wanted to come for a year anyway.

Here are the Detroit salaries that were recently posted in the Detroit Free Press.

The Red Wings are mostly intact through next season. A look at the free agents and when the other players are signed through:

UFA stands for Unrestricted Free Agent
RFA stands for Restricted Free Agent -- Wings can match any other team's offer.

FORWARDS HT WT AGE 2007 SALARY THRU
Dallas Drake 6-0 192 39 $550,000 UFA
Darren McCarty 6-1 210 36 475,000 UFA
Aaron Downey 6-0 216 33 525,000 UFA
Valtteri Filppula 6-0 189 24 698,039 RFA
Pavel Datsyuk 5-11 197 29 6,700,000 2014 UFA
Kris Draper 5-10 190 37 2,128,000 2011 UFA
Tomas Kopecky 6-3 200 26 500,000 2009 UFA
Darren Helm 6-0 182 21 663,500 2010 RFA
Justin Abdelkader 6-2 203 21 850,000 2011 RFA
Henrik Zetterberg 5-11 195 27 2,650,000 2009 UFA
Johan Franzen 6-3 218 28 941,666 2009 UFA
Jiri Hudler 5-9 178 24 1,015,000 2009 RFA
Kirk Maltby 6-0 196 35 883,333 2010 UFA
Tomas Holmstrom 6-0 202 35 2,250,000 2010 UFA
Daniel Cleary 6-0 210 29 662,500 2013 UFA
Mikael Samuelsson 6-2 210 31 1,200,000 2009 UFA

DEFENSEMEN HT WT AGE SALARY CONTRACT
Brad Stuart 6-2 213 28 3,500,000 UFA
Andreas Lilja 6-3 230 32 1,000,000 UFA
Chris Chelios 6-1 190 46 850,000 UFA
Jonathan Ericsson 6-5 205 24 495,000 RFA
Kyle Quincey 6-1 207 22 535,000 RFA
Nicklas Lidstrom 6-1 193 38 7,600,000 2010 UFA
Brian Rafalski 5-10 200 34 6,000,000 2012 UFA
Niklas Kronwall 6-0 189 27 3,000,000 2012 UFA
Brett Lebda 5-9 194 26 650,000 2010 UFA
Derek Meech 5-11 197 24 483,333 2010 RFA
Jakub Kindl 6-2 199 21 850,000 2010 RFA

GOALIES HT WT AGE SALARY CONTRACT
Chris Osgood 5-10 176 35 850,000 2011 UFA
Jimmy Howard 6-1 204 24 733,000 RFA

nhlnumbers.com has a complete breakdown of every teams salaries and contracts. Detroit can afford to have all these stars partially because they draft so low and well. These guys take time to mature, and in turn gives management time to evaluate them. The ones that look promising at the nhl level are locked into longterm deals BEFORE they explode. Thats why zetterberg signed a 4 year deal for 2.6 mil, sacrificing a year of free agency. At the time he was in his second year, a 20/20 player.


Theres also a pecking order, and lids is on top, making 7.5 mil. HE could get 10 mil, everyone knows it, but he sticks @ 7.4 while malkin and crosby demand 8.8. Following suit datsyuk takes 6.7 for 7 years. Kronwall takes 3 mil for 5 years(kind of like Z) homer takes 3 years for 2.2. When it comes to free agents its simple. Buy in or get out.


Rafalski was getting offers of 7+ but he wanted to be in detroit. meanwhile schneider and bert got more from anaheim.. so goodbye to them. Theres market value, then there is the wings salary structure. Ask yourself how commodore, hainsey, and jeff finger got the same or more than brad stuart.


Its simple, the Wings dont get into bidding wars. Making the playoffs 17 years in a row doesnt hurt, nor does winning 4 cups in the past 11 years. IT also doesnt hurt that you have some of the top players in the league taking SERIOUS hometeam discounts. Also having you top offensive players being your top defensive and hardest working players. It all sets a tone. They just sit back, and wait for guys that WANT TO BE THERE, not guys looking for the highest bid. You end up with a collection of studs that understand it takes a team to win, which in turn attracts more studs.

I was wondering what veteran that wants his name on the cup would come to the Wings. I was thinking Naslund or Sundin.

I know the Wings were after Sundin at the trade deadline. Mr. Sundin could have had his name on the cup this year and next, but now he is out in the cold... That's gotta hurt!

Mr. Holland never ceases to amaze me!

At his initial press conference Mike Gillis made clear the fact that the Canucks are in need of change.

So far he's pretty much got his selection of players this week that will be on the bubble and watch from the press box.

I live just across the river from "Self Proclaimed Hockeytown" And I can't believe they just signed Hossa! Being a Leaf fan I'm stunned that Leaf Management wouldn't cut Sundin lose for good and make a effort to try and sign this guy! Good luck Hossa "break a leg "

Would there be any takers out there than Sundin would give his eye teeth to play for the wings and that is the possible reason he turned down the Canucks outlandish offer?

Hossa is now public enemy number one in Pittsburgh. He is joining the team that beat us in the finals. He is Benedict Arnold and Judas wrapped into one. Would LOVE to play them again in the finals ... and beat him just to see his face

Now if only Detroit could convince some fans to show up and watch this amazing group of players!

John -- The Wings have about $3.5m left after signing Hossa, money they need to allocate for Cheli (875,000ish), Fillipa, and either Downey or McCarty, either of which would probably have to accept a two-way contract. They and Hossa seem to both be saying that they want to do a longer deal, but the RW insist on having $$ next year for Franzen and Z...good move, in my book. Holland will wait and see how much the cap boes up next year, then try and sign all three.

Gotta love the aggression...chance to build a bit of a dynasty, and they go for it. One of the may reasons I love being a Wing's fan (and I remember 16 years of no playoffs as a kid, so I've seen the other side).

John,
All team and individual salary info is very handy at nhlnumbers.com. Detroit's advantage for salaries comes from very cheap goaltending (Osgood = $1.4M) and some guys who have become stars and are in the middle of longer term contracts at very reasonable prices (Zetterberg = $2.65M; Holmstrom = $2.25M; Samuelsson = $1.2M; Franzen = $.9M; Lilja = $1.25M).

The secret seems to be the long vision. The Wings haven't screwed up with stupid signings of guys like McCabe, Blake, Gomez, Briere, Khabibulin, Campbell, etc, etc. There are seldom short cuts in this biz, and much more often teams get burned trying to fix everything by throwing big $$$ at would-be saviours.

The big red machine just keeps spinning!! It's amazing what the Wings are doing and how they put up a strong dominant team even with a salary cap.

I can't wait to see Hossa together with Datsyuk Zetterberg Lidstrom Rafalski on power play. It will be incredible, but Holmstrom has to be in the mix too to screen the goalie. To replace Dallas Drake with Marian Hossa is quite an upgrade though. Not sure what the lines are going to be but it may be incredible to watch.

Hossa did not sign with Detroit because he wanted to win. He doesn't care about winning.He signed because no one offered him the salary he wanted ( probably $10-11 million per year ). So he signed for one year hoping to get a better offer next year.

Man I wish I was a Detroit fan so I could have something to be happy about..... unfortunately I like the Leafs. :-(

Will someone post the Red Wings' salaries and cap info? How can they have all of these stars?

Another team to be watching out for this upcoming season will be the Chicago Blackhawks. They had an exceptional season last year, but the loss of 7 regular players from their lineup to call up up to 11 different rookies to play for the team hurt them dramatically.

With two of their free agency signings (campbell + Huet) they've solidified a weaker aspect on their team. Defense and powerplay.

Just shows that hossa will take a win over money.

So how does the rest of the league keep up when all the best free agents flock to HockeyTown?? It's got to be a difficult task for Mike Gillis to try and attract players to Vancouver...any small market team out there has no chance, big dollars or not.

The Detroit Red Wings management make most other in the NHL look like buffoons. I look on at awe at the machine that the Red Wings are. Quality from top to bottom. I only wish the owners of the Vancouver Canucks would model their franchise after the Wings. Instead we fire Nonis before he can even put his mark on the team, and the new offers Sundin $20 million. We can only hope Sundin chooses to retire instead.

Wow, just an unbelievable coupe! Just being the Detroit Red Wings give the franchise such strong negotiating leverage when dealing with free agents. It should be a great 2008-09 season!