Blackhawks land Wings' Hossa with a 12-year deal, and add Kopecky

It was late last week while at the draft in Montreal when Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon started to think he was not going to be able to re-sign Martin Havlat.

A meeting with his staff on Friday sent the Hawks in another direction, one that led to Tuesday's stunning announcement on the first day of free agency in the NHL that they had signed winger Marian Hossa, the four-time all-star who many believe was the best player on the market.

The Hawks signed the 30-year-old Hossa to a 12-year contract worth $62.8 million.

The deal was front-loaded to keep the cap hit relatively low at $5.2 million, which Tallon figures will be a great help next summer when the team must re-sign Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith.

Hossa will earn $59.3 million over the first eight years of the deal and $3.5 million for the final four.

"The type of contract Marian agreed to will not influence - our core will get taken care of," Tallon said. "We've identified who the top guys are in our organization. This deal did not affect our core going forward, and that was appealing to us.

"This deal was important to get done at this term (12 years) to help us in the future solidify that core group."

For the second year in a row it was a successful first day of free agency for the Hawks.

In addition to getting Hossa, stealing him away from rival Detroit, they signed another Red Wings forward in the versatile and tough Tomas Kopecky to a two-year, $2.4 million deal.

The late Wednesday night, the Hawks signed checking center John Madden to a one-year, $2.75 million contract. While the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Kopecky is a natural center, it will be Madden who replaces Sammy Pahlsson, who signed as a free agent with Columbus.

The Hawks also watched Nikolai Khabibulin bolt after four years in Chicago for a four-year, $15 million contract in Edmonton, paving the way for Cristobal Huet to become the No. 1 goaltender. Leaving with Khabibulin and Pahlsson was defenseman Matt Walker, who signed a four-year contract with Tampa Bay. But it was the signing of Hossa that made news all over the hockey world and should have Hawks fans thinking about winning the Stanley Cup.

"I felt our team got better today with one of the best players in the game," Tallon said. "We felt with Marian's experience and durability and the fact he's an elite level, world-class player, that he would will be a tremendous asset to our team and our young players to hopefully lead us to the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

"He's a solid guy in the locker room with impeccable character. Our players will love him. He's a horse out there. He can play defense and offense and get you 40 goals.

"He's a hard guy to slow down and a hard guy to stop. He's strong and he's durable and he's extremely skilled."

Twice Tallon mentioned Hossa's durability, an obvious comparison to Havlat's history of health issues, the latest being the concussion he suffered in the playoffs on the hit by Detroit's Niklas Kronwall in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.

Since the 1999-2000 season, Hossa has missed only 30 games. Three times in the last six seasons, he has scored 40 or more goals, including 40 with Detroit last year. In two other seasons he had 39 and 36.

"When I look at Chicago, I see an exciting team that's big, fast and strong with a lot of young guys," Hossa said. "I see a bright future in Chicago. They are hungry. They haven't won the Stanley Cup in a long time. You can see their hunger. This is a young, hungry team and they want to go for it."

Tallon still was talking to Havlat's agent late into Tuesday night, but Wednesday morning the Hawks only had their sights on Hossa.

"We were just unable to get a deal done with Marty," Tallon said. "It was mostly term (length of contract). That's basically what it came down to."

Late Wednesday, Havlat agreed to a six-year, $30 million contract with the Minnesota Wild. The Hawks wanted to sign Havlat to a shorter deal, believed to be two years at less than the $6 million he earned last season. Once Tallon felt the Havlat talks weren't going to end in a deal, the pursuit of Hossa developed quickly.

"I was surprised how serious they were," Hossa said. "They really wanted me and that was what drove me to sign a contract with them."

"This kind of came out of nowhere," Tallon said. "In our meetings in Montreal we came up with some secondary plans if we were unable to get Nik or Marty signed."

The Hawks heard Hossa had put them high on his list of teams he would like to play for.

"To have this guy identify that we were a destination team hasn't happened in the past for us," Tallon said. "I know this day has been very frustrating in the past. Last year was finally a success (with the signing of Brian Campbell and Huet), and here we go again. That makes you feel good about what's going on."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=304117">Images of Marian Hossa </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=304153">What a difference a year makes as Hawks score big <span class="date">[07/01/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://blackhawks.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=690&id=44586"> Hossa in action </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>