Breaking News: Chicago Blackhawks in Trouble for Marian Hossa Contract?

Rumors are flying out of Ottawa late Thursday that the Chicago Blackhawks might be in a lot of trouble with the league offices because of their contract agreement with Marian Hossa.

And it sounds like the league is fully ready to make an example of the Blackhawks, who are coming off a rebound season that was arguably the best story in the league in the last decade.

The Blackhawks signed Hossa to a 12-year contract within hours of the free agency period beginning. This raised more than a few eyebrows because Hossa, Detroit's leading goal scorer last season, will be in his 40s when the deal expires.

Further review of the deal leads one to believe that the intention of Chicago is not to have Hossa under contract for the full term of the deal. The salaries are overwhelmingly front-loaded, with Hossa earning more than $7 million per season for the first seven seasons of the contract.

In the last four years of the deal, however, Hossa's base salary falls off dramatically. In fact, he would earn around the league minimum in the last two seasons of the deal.

Time to state the obvious: If, after eight years, the Blackhawks can buy out Hossa for less than $2 million, then they don't intend on keeping him around until he's 40 years old.

This sort of thing is nothing new in the league and is especially not a new concept to the Bowman family. But apparently the league's offices want to make a new example of the Blackhawks.

Rumors are that the Blackhawks could face a fine of up to $5 million and lose draft picks if the league finds that the Hawks discussed the idea of Hossa retiring before the contract expires during their negotiations.

This could seriously impact the future of the Blackhawks organization.

Over the next 14 months, the Blackhawks will try to lock up a number of key young players, including their 21-year old captain Jonathan Toews and EA Sports new cover boy, 20-year old Patrick Kane. Money is already tight around the United Center, and a $5 million fine wouldn't help.

The Hawks have also been on a recent run of fantastic drafts, which have produced key players on their roster like Toews, Kane, Cam Barker and, in the coming seasons, Kyle Beach. Losing picks would impact the depth of the organization moving forward.

The summer of 2009 has not been kind to the Blackhawks, and this might be another notch in a growing list of negatives that could tarnish the wonderful story they became last year.