Hossa 7 years 42 Million?

http://www.theinsideronpittsburghsp
orts.com/

This post is reporting that the Penguins are going to offer Marian Hossa a 7 year deal worth 42 million dollars and let Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik walk if Hossa accepts it.  The Penguins rationale behind this deal is that this contract will pay Marian a reasonable price over seven years and no other team is willing to invest 7 to 8 million a year  for longer than 3 or 4 years for someone who is almost 30 years old.

My question to the board is do you think Hossa would take that kind of deal instead of taking more money for less years with the Bruins or Canadiens and are you willing to see Malone and Orpik walk if Sidney Crosby has the opportunity to play with a hall of fame winger for the next 7 years?

Point taken regarding no contract offers right now ... I would assume this is referring to once the season is over.  They have exclusive rights to negotiate with Hossa (and all free agents) up until July 1.

Oldhead ... I 100% agree that there is no way Hossa will take $6M next year.  However, what if they structured the contract like this?  7 years/$42M paid out as year 1: $9M; year 2: $7.5M; year 3: $7.5M; year 4: $7M; year 5: $6M; year 6: $3M; year 7: $2M.  (Or something along those lines.) 

This way Hossa would get a big pay day next year ($9M) ... $37M over 5 years (he's already turned down $35M over 5 years from Atlanta) ... and then he can just either play out his contract or retire a rich man at the age of 35 with hopefully several Cup rings on his fingers.   I'm not sure what all the collective bargaining agreement rules are, but Briere has that exact same salary structure up through 2015 ... he's getting $10M next season, but only $3M and $2M/year the final two seasons on his deal.

Just a thought ...

That being said ... I'm getting to the point where I'm not as worried about losing Malone as I am Orpik.  I like Malone and all, but I really believe most of his production this season is in large part to playing LW to Malkin.  His character and grit might be tough to replace, but there will be plenty of other less expensive forwards in the league that can replace his point production.  As I've said before, someone is going to overpay for Malone this offseason and then wonder where all his goals are next season when he's not playing with Geno.

On the other hand, Orpik has become an absolute hit machine on the blueline.  If the Pens lose Orpik, they are going to have to find someone to replace him, and there is no one in the organization that can take his role.  Neither Gonchar nor Scuderi nor Whitney are physical, and Letang and Goligoski are simply too small.  Gill will be back next year, but he's no Orpik.

My $0.02 ...

Forgot to mention ... right now Malone is the power forward on the PP, and he does it well.  But that position is going to be Staal's position ... sooner rather than later.  I'm not saying Staal can do it like Malone right now, but talk to me in a few years ...

Also, I'm not sure who's been paying attention, but that 20-year old Goligoski kid has been absolutely tearing things up on the blueline in the AHL post-season.  Much like Letang last year, they're not going to be able to keep him down there next season.  He will make the usual rookie mistakes I'm sure, but he is the future QB of the power play, once Gonchar moves on someday.