(Ed. Note: It’s the NHL Alternate History project! We’ve asked fans and bloggers from 31 teams to pick one turning point in their franchise’s history and ask ‘what if things had gone differently?’ Trades, hirings, firings, wins, losses, injuries … all of it. How would one different outcome change the course of history for an NHL team? Today: The great J.J. From Kansas from Winging It on the Detroit Red Wings. Enjoy!)

By J.J. From Kansas

Looking at the Red Wings’ history for strings to tweak, there’s no shortage of big-moment options to set our own Biff-Tannen-owns-the-whole-town alternate future in place.

We could go back and leave Ted Lindsay on the team, allowing the formation of the NHLPA a little earlier, and perhaps squeeze another Cup or two out of The Production Line II. Or we could visit June 1997 and erase limo driver Richard Gnida from the scars of our collective memory, giving the then-30 year old Vladimir Konstantinov back the last 5-plus years of his career (while simultaneously taking away Chris Pronger’s undeserved Norris Trophy win).

We could perhaps WABAC ourselves to 1988 and convince Wayne Gretzky to listen to his wife instead of his dad, forcing a trade to his favorite childhood team to mentor a young Steve Yzerman instead of putting California firmly on the hockey map. Although, Wayne Gretzky not being a Red Wing is still a huge part of one of my favorite hockey memories.

Speaking of Yzerman, we’ve got a whole slew of what-ifs that fans have been kicking around for ages:

What if the Islanders hadn’t scooped up Michigan kid and Red Wings target Pat LaFontaine with the third overall pick in 1983?

What if the Wings had pulled the trigger on Yzerman for Alexei Yashin in 1995?

What if Ken Holland stepped aside to let Yzerman take over as general manager before losing him to Tampa?

We could (and will) drive ourselves nuts kicking any of those around, but I want to talk about the what-if that’s followed us around for eight years now, and will still be around the team’s neck and in the fans’ heads for another three:

What if the Red Wings had signed Marian Hossa instead of Johan Franzen in 2009?

To appreciate the ripples of choosing a do-over on an important signing decision in the Wings’ past, we should first take a look back and remind ourselves how it happened.

Hindsight may be 20/20, but if anything the years since 2009 have taught me, it’s that it’s also probably looking through a fogged visor or something. Marian Hossa was a July 2008 Christmas present for Wings fans, who had no expectation the single-season record-holder for points in Atlanta Thrashers history was coming to sign with them, looking to avenge a Cup Final loss by their hands just weeks prior.

Hossa was already an established great at 29 and would go on to score 40 goals on Pavel Datsyuk’s wing while driving up hope that the team would be able to keep him on a longer term. Franzen, meanwhile was the guy who had earned the nickname “The Mule” from Steve Yzerman himself and was still fresh off a cup run during which he set a franchise record for most goals in a series (9 against Colorado in round 2) and most goals in a playoff run (13 total).

Very few people doubted Hossa would be the better player of the two, but the writing was on the wall for the future and Franzen was both the home-grown guy and the more affordable playoff monster. The Red Wings were faced with a flattening cap and the uncomfortable reality that between Henrik Zetterberg, Marian Hossa, and Johan Franzen, the team would only be able to sign two.

The easy refrain from 2017 is that this wouldn’t be a problem if Ken Holland would stop giving out awful contracts, but that wasn’t really the case more than one lockout ago. Probably the worst contract on the Wings’ books back then was Kris Draper making $1.58 million with one year left to go (although Brad Stuart’s deal was one year too long). Remember, this was back when Dan Cleary had knees, so his $2.8 million cap hit was fine for a guy who averaged just under 40 points over the course of that deal.

From that point, Franzen has played only half of the games and given them 218 points. Hossa, meanwhile has given 641 games (87%) and provided 473 points, 73 of which have been in the postseason.

So what happens if Detroit goes against the Red Wings Way™ and cuts Franzen loose to sign Hossa to the bigger, longer, backdivier deal? Let’s take a look:

2009-10

The difference here is in the regular season. Detroit gets 57 games out of a rehabbed Hossa and 30 more goals because of it. With the stronger finish, the Wings end up in the 2nd seed and draw Vancouver in the 2nd round while Chicago takes on the Sharks. Detroit handles the copycat team while Chicago takes out the squad put together specifically to beat the Red Wings. Detroit and Chicago end up in a Western Conference Final rematch from the year before, but without Hossa to drag Toews around, the Wings come out on top before reliving history with a sweep over the Flyers in the Cup final.