Needs More Ditka

The Chicago Blackhawks wasted no time in filling the holes on their depth chart. With Samuel Pahlsson and Martin Havlat not resigning with the Blackhawks, GM Dale Tallon went out and signed Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky to twelve and two year deals respectively.

Hossa was widely considered to be the best free agent available in this year’s class, which was allowed to sign contracts at 12pm eastern time today. The 12 year deal means that, barring trade, Hossa will be a Blackhawk for the rest of his career. The contract is valued at 62.8 million dollars, bringing the salary cap hit to 5.2 million dollars a year. Reports are surfacing that the contract is extremely front loaded, with Hossa receiving $59.8 million in over the first eight years. When that period passes, Hossa, who will be 31 in January and is set to be 42 years old when his contract expires, will earn an average of $0.8 million each of the last 4 years of his contract.

It is to be fully expected that Hossa would contemplate retirement after year seven of his contract, and at the point Hossa retires, the Blackhawks will not be penalized against their salary cap. If the Blackhawks decide to buy out his contract after seven years, they would feel little repercussion as well, though it seems unlikely that scenario would ever occur.

In the end, this Hossa contract changes the balance of power in the Western Conference, but makes it difficult for Dale Tallon to sign the big three in 2010, but not insanely difficult. A 40 goal scorer for a cap hit of $5 million is almost unheard of, and while Blackhawks fans will mourn the loss of Martin Havlat, the Chicago Blachawks will be a better team next year because they will have a better player in Havlat’s place, and for less money, and less of an injury risk. Down the road, questions might be asked, but there are few players in the NHL better than Marian Hossa.

Kopecky, a fellow Detroit Red Wing with Hossa last season, was signed to be a checking line center. Kopecky is a solid two way center, but was delegated to lower lines on the talent laden Red Wings. Kopecky has eerily similar numbers to Sami Pahlsson’s stats in Anaheim, numbers that became stronger when Pahlsson went to Chicago. Kopecky is set to make $1.2 million a year for two seasons. Pahlsson, after a fantastic Stanley Cup Playoff run, has been asking for more than $2 million a year.

To counteract the salary cap hit of Hossa, the Blackhawks have been reportedly in negotiations to trade Cristobal Huet to Edmonton, and are in contract negotiations with Nikolai Khabibulin for a short term deal that would bring him back to Chicago to start over Antti Niemi. Check back for more details, as the Blackhawks looked poised to make more moves on this Canada Day.