Future Guy: Hossa not a Wing in 2009-10

Mr. Spector at Fox Sports speculates that Marian Hossa will only be a Red Wing for the 08-09 season while Ken Holland will almost assuredly lock up Hank and the Mule for the long haul.

Right now the Wings have about $41 million tied up for next season with Zetterberg, Franzen and Hossa left unsigned, among others.

Hank (making $2.9 mil this year) is due for a raise of around $4 mil, which would be right around what Datsyuk is making ($6.7). Franzen (making $1.15 mil) will be expecting a new salary of around, let's guess, about $4 million/per. That puts the Wings at around $52 million for next year. Then there's this:

The cap for this year is at $56.7 million. That's a vast increase from the modest $39 mil that was installed for the post-lockout 2005-06 season. Also, if it continues to grow by about 11%, That puts the cap for 09-10 at about $62 million. That's roughly $10 million of space for Hossa, with Hudler, Samuelsson, Kopecky and Conklin left unsigned. I'm sure I'm off by a bit with all of this (safe bet) but considering our wizard of a GM, I feel optimistic that we can keep Hossa for longer than just this season. For whatever that's worth.