from Amazon
Friday, August 15, 2008
92 million dollars? No, 7.45… take it or leave it. I’ll take it!
Marian Hossa is one of the best players in the NHL, a free agent, had a great post-season, went to the finals, and he seemed to have been offered some Ovechkin-like contract, some $92MM long-term deal. Instead he opted for a one-year $7.45MM deal:
“I asked what they were looking for,” Holland told Landsberg. “It was north of 7.5 (million). I told them I was uncomfortable (having Hossa make more than Lidstrom). “In the end, Marian Hossa told me to not bother calling Nik, one year at 7.45 - it was a done deal.”
Even his agent was surprised. “I have never been involved in a deal and seen a player get so excited to take $85 million less than he was offered elsewhere,” Winter told The Canadian Press. “It’s almost incomprehensible, even to an agent. But Marian is a special player.”
To put this in baseball perspective, you need to double all NHL salaries to get it into MLB terms. He effectively turned down a $185MM multi-year deal, for a 1 year $15MM deal to play for the best team in the league.