On second glance, Marian Hossa will not cost Coyotes much
At first glance it seems the Arizona Coyotes took on a lot of money and did the Blackhawks a favor with Marian Hossa, but not so fast on the first part…
Going back a few years, the Arizona Coyotes became something of a reservoir for other teams looking to unload cap hits and contracts for players who would never lace up again. Chris Pronger, Pavel Datsyuk and Dave Bolland fit the bill, with Marian Hossa joining that list of idle contracts after a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
Hossa missed all of last season with a skin condition, and he has publicly said he’s retired without yet declaring it officially with the NHL. He has three years left on the 12-year, $63.3 million deal he signed with Chicago, with an annual cap hit of $5.275 million. So it helped the Blackhawks to shed that, and they ultimately gained around $4.6 million in cap space when accounting for who else they gave up and who came back from Arizona in the trade.
But the front-loaded nature of that contract, with Hossa’s current age (39) surely in mind as the deal wound down, has him due a total of just $3 million in base salary over the next three seasons. That $1 million per year is not a significant commitment, but as long as Hossa does not play the Coyotes will avoid a significant portion of that money.
It's worth noting that Marian Hossa's contract is insured for 80% of it's value.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) July 12, 2018
Meaning that the $1,000,000 in base salary that Hossa is due in each of the next 3 seasons will only cost the #Coyotes $200,000 pic.twitter.com/XLN1OlOKji
So the Coyotes will pay Hossa $200,000 per year for the next three years, and the Blackhawks can avoid some substantial recapture penalties if he doesn’t officially announce his retirement from the league. Meanwhile Hossa will still collect the rest of what he’s owed over the next three years, while starting on whatever his aspirations are now that he’s not a hockey player. T
If (emphasis on the word "IF") Marian Hossa were to announce his official retirement from the league, & forgo the remaining $3M in salary owed, prior to the beginning of any of the next 3 seasons, here's what the recapture penalty would cost the #Blackhawks against the salary cap pic.twitter.com/jfKlkfVJEM
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) July 12, 2018
Next: 2018 NHL Draft: Report cards for each team
Talk about a win-win-win, even though the Coyotes will have to fork over $200,000 for a few years to get nothing directly in return from Hossa. But to foster getting a couple promising pieces from the Blackhawks, in winger Vinnie Hinostroza and defenseman Jordan Oesterle, that’s a small price to pay.