#127 - Marian Hossa

Marian Hossa (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #127)

Adjusted Stats

1997-1998   Ott         7 GP     0 goals     1 assist       1 point         0.17 PPG
1998-1999   Ott         60 GP   18 goals   18 assists    35 points     0.58 PPG
1999-2000   Ott         78 GP   32 goals   30 assists    63 points     0.80 PPG
2000-2001   Ott         81 GP   36 goals   48 assists    84 points     1.03 PPG
2001-2002   Ott         80 GP   36 goals   41 assists    78 points     0.97 PPG
2002-2003   Ott         80 GP   52 goals   41 assists    93 points     1.16 PPG
2003-2004   Ott         81 GP   43 goals   55 assists    98 points     1.21 PPG
2005-2006   Atl          80 GP   40 goals   54 assists   94 points     1.17 PPG
2006-2007   Atl          82 GP   46 goals   61 assists   107 points   1.30 PPG
2007-2008   Atl/Pit     72 GP   33 goals   42 assists   75 points     1.04 PPG
2008-2009   Det         74 GP   43 goals   33 assists   77 points     1.04 PPG
2009-2010   Chi*       57 GP   27 goals   30 assists   57 points     1.00 PPG
2010-2011   Chi         65 GP   28 goals   36 assists   64 points     0.99 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1998-1999   Ott         4 GP     0 goals      2 assists     2 points      0.55 PPG
1999-2000   Ott         6 GP     0 goals      0 assists     0 points      0.00 PPG
2000-2001   Ott         4 GP     1 goal        1 assist      2 points      0.59 PPG
2001-2002   Ott         12 GP   5 goals      7 assists    12 points     0.99 PPG
2002-2003   Ott         18 GP   6 goals      13 assists  19 points     1.06 PPG
2003-2004   Ott         7 GP     4 goals      1 assist      5 points      0.73 PPG
2006-2007   Atl          4 GP     0 goals      1 assist      1 point       0.28 PPG
2007-2008   Pit          20 GP   13 goals    15 assists   27 points    1.36 PPG
2008-2009   Det         23 GP   6 goals      9 assists    15 points    0.67 PPG
2009-2010   Chi*       22 GP   3 goals      11 assists   14 points    0.64 PPG
2010-2011   Chi         7 GP     2 goals      4 assists     6 points     0.86 PPG 

Career - 897 GP, 434 goals, 490 assists, 926 points, 1.03 PPG
Career-Highs - 52 goals (02-03); 61 assists (06-07); 107 points (06-07); 1.30 PPG (06-07)
Avg. (12 seasons) - 74 GP, 36 goals, 41 assists, 77 points, 1.03 PPG
Peak Avg. (00-09) - 79 GP, 41 goals, 47 assists, 88 points, 1.12 PPG, 0 Cups

Playoff Career - 127 GP, 40 goals, 64 assists, 103 points, 0.81 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 13 goals (07-08); 15 assists (07-08); 27 points (07-08); 1.36 PPG (07-08)

Accolades - None
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

From 2008 to 2010, there wasn't a more comically tragic figure in the league than Marian Hossa. Penguins' fans may well have said he deserved his fate, but the impartial fan certainly had to feel more than a little sorry for Hossa. This was the trajectory during those two years: after languishing with the Atlanta Thrashers for two-and-a-half seasons, Hossa was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins to provide a scoring winger for Sidney Crosby. The experiment worked well: Hossa was second to Crosby in postseason scoring with 27 adjusted points in 20 games, and the team made it all the way to the Cup finals before losing to the Red Wings.

Nothing too tragic there, but then Hossa walked away from a mammoth contract offer the Penguins had tabled to sign a one-year deal for less money with the Detroit Red Wings, the very team that had beaten him and, in the words that would come back to haunt Hossa, "his best shot to win a Stanley Cup". After a stellar year in which Hossa joined Datsyuk and Zetterberg to form an amazing trio of the league's best two-way forwards, Detroit was back in the Cup finals against the very Penguins that Hossa had shunned. Hossa was a no-show in the Cup final and Pittsburgh shockingly won Game 7, leaving Hossa two-time runner-up and a perfect villain for Penguins' fans.

Once more, Hossa jumped to another up-and-coming contender...this time the Chicago Blackhawks, signing an enormous ten-year deal. Finally, Hossa's timing was on: the Blackhawks won their first Cup in 49 years, and even though Hossa wasn't anywhere near the Blackhawks' best player during the run, it was a huge monkey off of Hossa's back. The accomplishment of being a key player on three different teams that all the made the Cup final in three consecutive years would have been remarkable enough, but if the Blackhawks had lost in the final, Hossa would have been his own personal version of the Buffalo Bills...a hex like no one has ever seen in the modern NHL.

Although Hossa's recent team success has become the thing that most fans will remember about him, his personal achievements as a player shouldn't be forgotten. He is one of the most dominant players in the league at puck possession, making him a two-way force on par with Datsyuk and Zetterberg (although not quite as consistently spectacular). Hossa is one of the league's best penalty killers and yet still has averaged 36 goals a season and over a point-a-game in a twelve-year career. It's rare to see someone so gifted at both ends of the ice as Hossa.

For someone who has been around for a very long time, Hossa is still quite young at only 32. If he puts in another four or five seasons at about a point a game (or slightly less), Hossa will end up with around 1200-1300 adjusted career points and somewhere between 550 and 600 goals...difficult to dismiss when you consider his excellent two-way play. And he has always been a part of winning organizations: the Senators were among the league's best regular-season teams in the early-2000s, and even though they always choked come playoff time, Hossa was one of the least-culpable on the team, scoring 19 points in 18 playoff games during their run to the Conference finals in 2003 and 12 in 12 the year before. Even after he was traded to the laughable Atlanta Thrashers for Dany Heatley, Hossa helped the Thrashers to seasons of 90 and 97 points, and the franchise's only playoff appearance.

So why despite his gaudy numbers, team success, superb two-way play and Stanley Cup ring is Hossa not ranked even higher? He may be once the numbers start piling up, but there is also the matter that Hossa seems to have established that he can't be the guy when it comes to carrying a team. He's an ideal second-line right-winger or even first-liner with a team that has a superstar center (i.e. Toews, Crosby). With all of his teams, Hossa has usually been the third or fourth best player...and he seems to be fine in that role. Even with his run of three straight Cup finals appearances on three different teams, Hossa was the guy you thought about after you'd dealt with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Crosby, Malkin, Toews and Kane. And in his best seasons with the Ottawa Senators and Atlanta Thrashers, he had to share the spotlight with Kovalchuk, Alfredsson and Spezza.

Nevertheless, for a player who's gone about his business with a level of consistently good play throughout the 2000s, Hossa is deserving of a spot on my list. And more importantly for him, by being part of a championship team in 2010, he's avoided having the label of perennial runner-up attached to his legacy.