This off season the Maple Leafs must decide to spend during free-agency or stay the course. I believe the Leafs should make a giant move and sign Marian Hossa to a contract of something like $9 million/5-6 years, or avoid all other UFA's. While I believe the Sedin twins are talented, they aren't Marian Hossa.
My other reason for Hossa or bust would be the better UFA's available in the summer of 2010. The likes of Kovalchuk, Marc Savard, Ric Nash, Patrick Marleau, Nabokov, Luongo and even a 40 year old Lidstrom. I feel that with the shrinking salary cap and the huge amount of cap space Toronto has, they could make a huge splash in 2010. That, and the fact that so many teams are up against the cap could mean that these 2010 UFA's might have to take less than market value.
So, if you're listening Brian Burke, Hossa or 2010.
Giving Hossa or any player that much money with the way things are projected is a bad move. With what we have now anyway Hossa is not the way to go.
Hossa is a great player on a contending team, but is not the answer on a rebuilding team, especially at a 9 mil. /per price tag. Rick Nash would be a good pick up in another years, as would Luongo. Lidstrom will be with Detroit untill he retires.
I've heard that Gaborik and Hossa want to hit FA together, so that if a team wants one of them they're gonna have to sign both of them... as like a package deal... not sure if it's true, but yea
Nastradamus, I simply can't see that being true. Both are going to command 7 million a season, no team besides the Islanders, Thrashers or Kings could even come close to managing that.