They wanted to and made efforts to keep both Hossa and Franzen and offered both contracts and they tried to sign Hossa even after Franzen signed his contract. They didn't choose one over the other and there was a $23 million difference in their total salaries. Hossa ultimately chose Chicago's offer which offered a bit more money and term and he was also going to an up and coming team with elite players in their early 20's rather than Pav and Z who were approaching their early 30's and likely had a longer window to win Cups. He made a solid business decision.
If anyone critically analyzes what happened and actually believes that Holland just told Hossa to get lost after Franzen signed his contract, or that they thought Franzen would be a 40 to 50 goal scorer throughout the majority of his contract and/or that they thought Franzen was legitimately a better player than Hossa even though there was a giant discrepancy in total salary commitment, then more power to them and I have some swamp land to sell in Florida.
Simply wrong on all accounts.
Nobody says the Wings told Hossa to get lost.
Just like the Wings didn't tell Cleary or Brunner to get lost.
There's oinly so much cap room
You sign Franzen at that cap hit, you've made your choice, unless you expect Hossa to play for $4M a year, which is obviously not a realistic expectation.
In life, you make your priorities.
If you've got $150,000 and you want a Porche and a Lincoln, and you spend $60,000 on the lincoln, you can't have the $100,000 Porche.
If elite hockey players was the priority, signing Franzen before Hossa was a grave mistake.
Unless you actually believed Franzen was a s good or better than Hossa.
Holland made his intentions clear. He signed Franzen thinking Franzen + depth (RFA Hudler and UFA Sammy) was better than Hossa + minimum contract guys/rookies.
