Excerpt from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Marian Hossa:

“If I wanted to make a couple more dollars, I would probably just re-sign with Atlanta,” said Hossa, whose 12 goals and 26 points in the playoffs were exactly what the Penguins were seeking when they acquired him from the Thrashers on Feb. 26. “But I’m glad Pittsburgh got me here. This was a fun journey for myself, and a great experience. I hope I can stick with a great team like this. …

“There’s always a limit, but I’d rather take a little less and play on a good team, definitely.”




Habster:

The operative words to take note of in Hossa’s comments are “There’s always a limit”……….Marian Hossa and his super aggressive agent, Rich Winters will not dip below the $8-$9 million per season range (at a 5-7 year term) which is still too rich for the Penguins.

Pens GM Ray Shero has UFAs Ryan Malone, Brook Orpik, Jarkko Ruutu and Pascal Dupuis to try to re-sign while he has RFAs Marc-Andre Fleury to deal with as well.

Add into the equation that Shero has to commit long term with such talented future stars as Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal after next season, then you can completely understand the difficult task which lies ahead.

Simply put, there isn’t enough long term money to keep Marian Hossa in a Penguins jersey beyond his “fun journey” with the Pens this season.