Guess what? Pens can re-sign Hossa

“Whoever said ‘Tomorrow is another day,’ didn’t check the weather.”

That is the tagline for… “Whoever said ‘Tomorrow is another day,’ didn’t check the weather.”

That is the tagline for the 2004 blockbuster, special effects-filled movie “The Day after Tomorrow.” But it could also be used for the 2008 blockbuster, super-star-filled National Hockey League trade deadline.

The average salary of the 42 players traded at the deadline, who are currently on an NHL roster, is about $1.91 million. The highest salary of a player dealt was Dallas’s Brad Richards, who’ll receive $7.8 million for this season, while the lowest paycheck a traded player receives is $500,000 – Tampa Bay’s Alexandre Picard.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, whose current salary cap number is about $41 million, added about $9.96 million to their payroll at the deadline while only subtracting $1.95 million. Those numbers are for the entire season and are not the pro-rated value of the contract over the remainder of the season.

But was this extra $8 million worth the expense in salary as well as in assets given up?

Let’s look at the two trades made by the Penguins at the deadline. The second trade generalmanager Ray Shero made was a bit more shocking, so we’ll analyze that one first.

Here’s the deal: Pittsburgh gets Marian Hossa, a five-time NHL All-Star and arguably one of the top-10 players in the league, and Pascal Dupuis, a speedy third-line winger who is an amazing penalty killer.

The Atlanta Thrashers received Colby Armstrong, a fan favorite and gritty third-line right wing, Erik Christensen, a talented center who would never crack Pittsburgh’s top six, Angelo Esposito, a head-case top prospect who is beginning to look like Alexander Daigle, and a 2008 first-round draft pick.

Of everything that Pittsburgh gave up, I am mostly disappointed in the inclusion of the first-round pick. This summer’s draft is said to be one of the deepest in a long time, and the Pens could’ve used the pick to deepen their crop of wingers.

That being said, Dupuis is a faster Armstrong. While he is not known to drop the gloves like Army, Dupuis does possess a position-savvy game and is a better penalty killer than Armstrong.

Christensen was bound to be traded, so why not ship him off for Hossa, the best player available at the deadline?

The acquisition of Hossa, even though he makes $7 million this season and is an unrestricted free agent after July 1, should be seen as a positive sign for the future.

In my opinion, Shero wouldn’t trade all of those pieces for a rental, and the Penguins will re-sign him. With a re-signing, this could go down with the likes of the Ron Francis deal in 1991.

Hossa is the quintessential scoring winger for Crosby, and combined with his penalty killing abilities, I don’t see Hossa’s salary as a downer.

It actually should fit into the budget to sign him for three more years.

Evegeni Malkin and Jordan Staal are due for contract extensions following this season, but those extensions won’t kick in for another season.

Combine that with the fact that the team will have the contracts of Mark Recchi and Andre Roy off of their cap, as well as Gary Roberts’ $2.5 million, I feel that resigning Hossa is a distinct possibility.

Two months on Crosby’s right wing also shouldn’t hurt the persuasion factor when re-signing.

But this Hossa-Dupuis deal wasn’t the only one Shero made. He bolstered his team’s then-25thranked penalty kill with a solid defensive acquisition of Hal Gill.

Gill provides the Penguins with a big body (6-foot-7, 250 pounds) as well as a pinpoint passer from the blue-line position.

His long frame and stick should help clear pucks out of the slot on the penalty kill, but was he worth what the team gave up for him?

At first glance, no. But something every team needs during the stretch run and in playoff time is depth, and Gill provides just that, especially with defensive defenseman Rob Scuderi going down for three weeks during the game following the deadline.

Gill can fill in during Scuderi’s time out, and when Scuds, as he is known, comes back from the injured reserve, the Pens will have more than a 32-year-old journeyman or a 22-year-old rookie as their seventh defenseman.

The thing is they did give up a 2008 second-round pick and 2009 fifth-round pick for Gill. This price seems steep as the second-rounder is in the deep ’08 class. While a second-round pick should’ve been enough for Gill, one has to remember that the defenseman is under contract for another season following this one, thus the inclusion of the fifth-round pick.

Overall, I see this $8 million extra on three solid players being a little bit better spent than the $125 million that went toward “The Day after Tomorrow.”