Marian Hossa's NHL Legacy
Playing Consecutive Stanley Cup Finals With Different Teams
By the end of the week, Marian Hossa will find himself in rarely chartered waters for an NHL player.
One of two scenarios will play out – we know that for sure:
1) The Detroit Red Wings will beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday, making Hossa one of the most, if not the most, high profile players to sign with an NHL team solely based on his desire to win a Stanley Cup.
2) The Pittsburgh Penguins will do what 74% of teams in NHL history could not do - come back to win games 6 and 7 to de-throne the defending champion Red Wings – leaving Marian Hossa open to massive ridicule from players, fans and pundits alike.
Trying to research the exact number of players who have played in consecutive Stanley Cup Finals with two different teams proved to be a near impossible task.
Stanley Cup Finals Bad Luck
One player on record is Jean-Guy Talbot. Talbot played for the Montreal Canadiens in 1967 that lost in the cup finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Talbot then played for the St. Louis Blue in 1968 and1969, where he lost 2 consecutive Stanley Cups against his former team the Canadiens – and just to top it off, in 1970 he and his Blues would lose out to Bobby Orr’s Boston Bruins in the cup final.
What is known is that there are 2 players in the 2009 version of the Stanley Cup Finals alone who were on Pittsburgh last year – back-up goalie Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa.
Unlike Conklin, who signed a one-year / $750,000 US deal with the Red Wings in the off-season to back up Chris Osgood, Hossa left Pittsburgh to sign with Detroit for all the wrong reasons. Hossa, who is 30 this year, declined a 5-year / $35 Million deal offer from Pittsburgh to remain a Penguin and he turned down a multi-year deal worth $9 Million a season from the Edmonton Oilers. Instead, he signed with Detroit for one-year, earning $7.45 Million. Hossa made no bones about his desire to win a Stanley Cup being the deciding factor to sign with Detroit.
At the beginning of the 2008/2009 NHL season, Detroit had won four Stanley cups in 11 years, and had firmly cemented their place as one of the greatest NHL dynasties. They had a solid line-up that included Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and future Hall of Fame defenseman, Nicklas Lidstrom. To say that Hossa was needed in Detroit for the team to be successful would be a complete fabrication. Hossa decided that he would play fast and loose with the NHL and its general managers. You can’t blame Detroit GM ken Holland for signing Hossa – after all, he is a great player… in the regular season.
Marian Hossa’s Playoff Stats
Hossa had never been a great playoff performer. In fact, oddly enough, his most productive playoff season was last year, while with the Penguins.
1999 Ottawa Senators: 4 games played, 0 goals, 2 points
2000 Ottawa Senators: 6 games played, 0 goals, 0 points
2001 Ottawa Senators: 4 games played, 1 goal, 2 points
2002 Ottawa Senators: 12 games played, 6 goals, 10 points
2003 Ottawa Senators: 18 games played, 5 goals, 16 points
2004 Ottawa Senators: 7 games played, 3 goals, 4 points
2008 Pittsburgh Penguins: 20 games played, 12 goals, 26 points
2009 Detroit Red Wings: 21 games played, 6 goals, 15 points *still in progress
Should Detroit go on to with the 2009 Stanley Cup, how can Hossa be respected a valuable member of the team? He hasn’t contributed to Detroit’s playoff run with any kind of significance; he hasn’t been on the team for years and years like Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom or Chris Draper. He is nothing more than an over-paid, underachieving, spoiled cry baby who is getting his name engraved on the Stanley Cup on the hard work of the rest of his team. And should Detroit win, what sort of precedent will this set for future players who are also willing to exploit the NHL’s salary cap to join teams with already established winning records.
What about loyalty? Steve Yzerman is loved in Detroit for his persistence and dedication to the team, Wendel Clark in Toronto for the same reasons.
If Pittsburgh comes back to miraculously win the Stanley Cup, Hossa will go down in history as one of the biggest losers in Stanley Cup Finals history – and one of very few players to lose in the finals consecutively with different teams.
Here’s hoping for the latter.
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