The NHL is hiring an outside firm to investigate whether Chicago and Philadelphia's respective signings of Marian Hossa and Chris Pronger are illegally designed to circumvent the salary cap. Because cap rules are the most convoluted rules in sports, and you need an advanced economics degree to understand them, here's the CliffsNotes version.

Hossa signed a 12-year deal with the Blackhawks, a ridiculous length for a 30-year-old. But there could be method to the madness. The first eight years of the deal pay Hossa $7.9 million annually, while the final four years only pay $1 million per year.

The potential violation is if Chicago took into account that Hossa is likely to retire around age 38, a pretty likely projection. Then he essentially has an 8-year, $8-million-per deal, but because the annual cap hit is calculated by averaging over the length of the contract, that's only about $5 million per year. He wins, the team wins.

Pronger's deal with the Flyers pays him about $7.5 million annually in the first four years, $4 million in the fifth year and then $525,000 in each of the last two years. That puts the cap hit under $5 million, freeing them up to spend more money.

You can't sign your players to contracts you don't expect them to honor, by retirement or otherwise. The teams could face fines and loss of draft picks, but don't expect any punishments. Similar deals have been vetted in the past, and many GM's believe the league is just posturing. Serves them right: you put a loophole in your CBA, and someone's going to exploit it.

Sources: Hossa, Pronger Deals Probed [ESPN]

So that's two years in a row that Hossa came ohsoclose to hoisting the Stanley Cup instead of his own petard doing likewise to him. Looking today, on June 13, it looks really foolish for Hossa to have gone from one team to the other.

As TSB's Adam Jacobi mentioned, Hossa did make the correct before-June-12 decision to sign with the best team with the best chance. The sequence of events made the team switch look really bad, but here's one thing to keep in perspective:

Four months. That's how long Hossa played for the Penguins. For years he played for the Ottawa Senators and Atlanta Thrashers, but he was a Penguin for four months. This wasn't a Johnny Damon situation where a longstanding fan favorite switched teams. This is more like a CC Sabathia situation, where players with lots of talent like signing with historically legendary teams. Or perhaps a Joe Lieberman situation. You mean you WERE a Democrat?

It wasn't a horrible move on June 13, either. An optimist would say that Hossa played with two teams in two years, both who reached the Stanley Cup Finals. But the decision, as of June 13, was probably a top three reason the series went the way it did, with the other reasons being the Red Wings injuries finally affecting the veteran players, and Marc-Andre Fleury using his limbs to block shots, rather than score them. Hossa did very little in the Stanley Cup, which means that perhaps signing with Pittsburgh would have helped Detroit repeat. Perhaps the Red Wings would do themselves well to trade Brad Stuart to Pittsburgh.

And he wasn't the only one to crossed Red Rover battle lines. How soon do we forget that backup goaltender Ty Conklin played for the Penguins last year? How about good luck charm Muhammad Ali being negated by the star of Twilight in attendance? And what of that Qdoba burrito that brought BGSU graduate and Penguins coach Dan Bylsma great fortune? Would Deadspin commenters agree* it's the best one available?

Requiem For A Marian Hossa [The Sporting Blog]
Is Ty Conklin Lucky Or Cursed? [FanHouse]
Muhammad Ali leads celebrity contingent at the Joe [Detroit Free Press]
Bylsma Brings Lucky Burrito To Detroit [Puck Daddy]

* - Of course not, because nobody comments on Deadspin anymore.

Hossa got his wish, riding the Red Wing bandwagon back to the championships round, but now he has to beat his old team if he wants to claim that Cup. I wonder if anyone has reminded him that if he'd stayed with the Penguins, he'd be in the exact same position—or arguably a much improved one the way Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are playing. Oh, and he would be much, much richer. If Hossa wins the title with Detroit, he will look like someone who made a shrewd, calculated (possibly cynical) risk and saw it pay off. If Pittsburgh wins, he will look like a colossal chump who jumped ship at the first sign of trouble and got a much deserved comeuppance.

In that eventuality, people will probably even joke that Hossa was the dead weight that dragged down both losing teams, which isn't true—he lead the Penguins in playoff goals last year—but will still sting like a mighty bumblebee.

"He came here, we took him in, fell in love with him, made songs for him, cheered for him," said Pens fan John McClelland, of Squirrel Hill. "Said he wanted a big deal. We offered it to him, then he goes to them for a one-year deal...."

"He abandoned us after the season was over, and I think a lot of people are still angry about that," said Pens fan Kim Piganell, of Oakdale.

Seriously, no pressure though.

Hossa Hatred: Pittsburgh Fans Still Angry At Ex-Penguin Star WTAE Pittsburgh]
Marian Hossa and the Stanley Cup finals of reckoning [Puck Daddy]