The Wings, who were squeezed by their salary cap, offered 10 years for $40 million for the forward. But they knew they likely wouldn't get him and gave his agent Ritch Winter permission a week ago to talk to other teams. They did it out of the goodness of their heart because they could have tried to trade his negotiating rights as Florida did with Jay Bouwmeester; but they felt they owed Hossa for signing with Detroit last year and leaving lots of money on the table elsewhere."