At last season’s trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins gave up Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, Angelo Esposito (much hyped junior prospect) and their 2008 first round draft pick, all to the Atlanta Thrashers, to acquire Marian Hossa & Pascal Dupuis. With Dupuis obviously being a throw-in in that deal.
In making the trade, the Penguins gave up some depth on their roster. To compound this, Pittsburgh lost another huge chunk of their offense, in Ryan Malone (27-goals, 51-points) and, yes, Marian Hossa to free agency in the off-season. Not to mention saw pretty much all of their toughness and edge walk away, in Georges Laraque, Gary Roberts & Jarkko Ruutu.
Pittsburgh GM Fred Shero tried to bandaid the losses on offense with Ruslan Fedotenko & Miroslav Satan. A pair of 16-goal rejects left to free agency by the Islanders of all teams! Neither of which could ever be mentioned in anywhere near the same class as a Hossa or Malone.
Despite even a last-ditch plea by Sidney Crosby, Hossa chose to reject a five-year, $35-million deal to stay in Pittsburgh and fled to Detroit, taking a one-year deal for what Hossa viewed as his best shot at the Stanley Cup. He joined the NHL’s deepest team, adding to the likes of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Lidstrom, who had just defeated Hossa’s Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final less than a month earlier.
The way Marian Hossa left Pittsburgh was considered a slap in the face to the organization! The Penguins players, management and ownership all were under the impression Hossa would stay. However, he decided to take a one-year deal at roughly the same money the Penguins were offering in a long-term contract.
So if the storyline ends up playing out to be a repeat of last year’s Penguins vs. Red Wings Stanley Cup final, captain Crosby will have a little extra motivation (not that he needed it anyway) driving him to slay the Goliath that is the Detroit Red Wings this year. Sid the Kid would love nothing more than to show Hossa just what a big mistake he made!
Written by: Scott Madore
