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There are statements from the Hawks and their doctors indicating he won't play in 17-18. Most are speculating he's done. That sucks for him, a hockey player allergic to something in hockey equipment?

...not to worry, it's Chicago, doctors will find a miracle cure come playoff time.

I give him a ton of credit because you sure couldn't tell by his play that he was dealing with major health issues. Typical hockey player - tough as nails.

So does his contract come off their books suddenly then?

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:So does his contract come off their books suddenly then?

LTIR

NHLTIM wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:So does his contract come off their books suddenly then?

LTIR

So basically, yes?

Pronger's "ghost contract" just came off of Arizona's books. He'll probably get stashed there until the playoffs.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

NHLTIM wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:So does his contract come off their books suddenly then?

LTIR

So basically, yes?

Yep. I think he still actually gets paid, but the cap hit disappears. Chicago sports talk radio is already talking about Oshie signing with the Hawks to play with his buddy Toews.

This smells like bullshit to me.

Hossa has a cap hit of 5.25M, but an actual salary of 1M.

However, I don't think this is just a way for the Hawks to get around Hossa's cap hit, because its Hossa. He scored 26 goals last year. He's still better than most anyone they could replace his cap hit with. If they want to sign Oshie, its going to take more than clearing Hossa off the books.

Dave's a mess wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

NHLTIM wrote:
LTIR

So basically, yes?

Yep. I think he still actually gets paid, but the cap hit disappears. Chicago sports talk radio is already talking about Oshie signing with the Hawks to play with his buddy Toews.

Typical Chicago......because we all know the world revolves around Chicago!

For the record, I would hate to see Oshie go there, but I also think one more concussion and Oshie is potentially done. He has had more than his share, and we are talking about a guy whose father developed Alzheimer's at 50. The dude has a beautiful wife and two young kids - at some point, he walks away.

UMSLBlues12 wrote:Hossa has a cap hit of 5.25M, but an actual salary of 1M.

However, I don't think this is just a way for the Hawks to get around Hossa's cap hit, because its Hossa. He scored 26 goals last year. He's still better than most anyone they could replace his cap hit with. If they want to sign Oshie, its going to take more than clearing Hossa off the books.

Is it possible that Hossa has elected to retire and that the Hawks are going this route for some cap relief? I've never heard of this happening to any professional athlete. I don't doubt that he has a severe allergy, but it sure seems convenient for Chicago. I have questions:

To what is he allergic?
If he was previously playing through pain or discomfort, why can't he do so now?
Did his allergic reaction(s) cause some sort of permanent physical damage? If so, how? What is the damage? If not, then why can't they substitute the material causing the reaction with a material to which he is not allergic?

I didn't see a ton of specifics about the allergy itself, just that it had been treated with medication for the last several years. Apparently the medication was just a temporary solution because there were significant risks to staying on the medication long-term. He basically reached the point where the doctors said enough is enough.

I know it is easy to look at the situation and think that it is the same old Hawks cap circumvention story, but there are plenty of examples (Pronger, Savard, Clarkson) of guys who would have retired but for the cap consequences and this is just another one of those things. The Hawks may benefit down the road as Hossa's skills would have diminished, but for this season they are going to need to replace his production and they were already pretty thin up front. The cap relief may be nice, but they will likely need to spend aggressively just to replace Hossa much less improve their forward group, and they still have very little cap space to do so.

insideout wrote:

UMSLBlues12 wrote:Hossa has a cap hit of 5.25M, but an actual salary of 1M.

However, I don't think this is just a way for the Hawks to get around Hossa's cap hit, because its Hossa. He scored 26 goals last year. He's still better than most anyone they could replace his cap hit with. If they want to sign Oshie, its going to take more than clearing Hossa off the books.

Is it possible that Hossa has elected to retire and that the Hawks are going this route for some cap relief? I've never heard of this happening to any professional athlete. I don't doubt that he has a severe allergy, but it sure seems convenient for Chicago. I have questions:

To what is he allergic?
If he was previously playing through pain or discomfort, why can't he do so now?
Did his allergic reaction(s) cause some sort of permanent physical damage? If so, how? What is the damage? If not, then why can't they substitute the material causing the reaction with a material to which he is not allergic?

I don't know the answer to your last question. However if its something common it could be pretty difficult to do. My understanding isn't so much that he was having reactions while he was playing, but that he had to take a medicine that was pretty toxic in order to suit up, and with the dosage of that medicine he's received its no longer safe for him to continue using it.

I won't say nothing bad about Hossa....he was a helluva a player.

Is it possible that Hossa has elected to retire and that the Hawks are going this route for some cap relief? I've never heard of this happening to any professional athlete. I don't doubt that he has a severe allergy, but it sure seems convenient for Chicago. I have questions:

To what is he allergic?
If he was previously playing through pain or discomfort, why can't he do so now?
Did his allergic reaction(s) cause some sort of permanent physical damage? If so, how? What is the damage? If not, then why can't they substitute the material causing the reaction with a material to which he is not allergic?

I don't think there's any question that this is what's happening. Everybody knows it but it's allowed in the CBA. Based on the way his contract was set up you could've easily identified this as the offseason he'd retire back when he signed it. Having said all that, I am not at all doubting that he dies actually have this skin condition. It's super rare, but there was a guy that played on the North Stars back in the day that had it as well. I'm not a dermatologist, but I don't believe the allergy is related to the material per se, but the skin being exposed to the heat/sweat with no room to breath for long periods of time.

Hossa was great, and to me a surefire Hall of Famer. I hope he enjoys retirement.

Just in case anyone is wondering, Hossa won't retire. It's either LTIR or trade. If he retires, here is what the cap hit is for Chicago: Ok, that's a small picture. If you don't want to click on it to enlarge it, his cap hit if he retires before the end of the contract will be $4.275M and that only saves them $1M on the cap.

He's either going on LTIR or they'll trade him to a team that needs to reach the cap floor, a la Pronger. It seems odd that if he retires it's worse on the team than going on LTIR. That will probably be next on the CBA chopping block because too many teams are burying bad contracts via LTIR.

stlblues1226 wrote:Just in case anyone is wondering, Hossa won't retire. It's either LTIR or trade. If he retires, here is what the cap hit is for Chicago:

Screen_Shot_2016-03-09_at_10.00.09_AM.0.png

Ok, that's a small picture. If you don't want to click on it to enlarge it, his cap hit if he retires before the end of the contract will be $4.275M and that only saves them $1M on the cap.

He's either going on LTIR or they'll trade him to a team that needs to reach the cap floor, a la Pronger. It seems odd that if he retires it's worse on the team than going on LTIR. That will probably be next on the CBA chopping block because too many teams are burying bad contracts via LTIR.

This situation will resolve itself over the next few years. These rules only apply to the back-diving contracts that were allowed before the last CBA. Once those contracts are done these rules will no longer be needed.

NHLTIM wrote:I won't say nothing bad about Hossa....he was a helluva a player.

I concur, but it still a little fishy with their cap problems and all.