Kessel traded to Penguins

[L K]

Phil Kessel + Eating 1.25M/year + 2 non-roster players of unknown significance
Nick Spaling, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington, 1st round pick and another draft pick

 

[Deebo]

If there is salary retention for 7 years and that's all they got, I'd rate this worse than anything Burke did.

The market is the market. The team can't just frown at it and make it better.

They can wait for it to improve or not make the deal.

I don't get the urgency to move him for that return. Not much of a risk of it getting worse than this.

Eating the contract, Dreger now reporting Toronto's 2nd rounder going back too...

 

[caver]

agreed Busta...maybe they felt the Horton LTIR gave them a cushion..

 

[Can8899]

I'll be honest, as someone who roots for Crosby and the Pens as a general rule I'm actually pretty excited to see Phil get to play with a talented group and still get to cheer for him.

I never blamed him for the shortcomings of the organization and while I think he needed to go, I'm still pretty fond of him.

Same here.  He'll be a perfect fit in Pittsburgh as the third wheel.  Crosby and Malkin will still dominate the media's time and all Kessel will need to do is fade into the background and score goals.  Similar situation to Marian Hossa with the Blackhawks...

 

[herman]

Assuming the cap goes up later, those retained millions won't be too bad.

 

[LuncheonMeat]

Well, if they're picking up Spaling as Bozak's replacement, maybe they get a second back in a trade for Bozak?

 

[Nik]

Not a fan of this. That's 7 years of having $1.2M to $2M of dead cap space. They needed to get something more for that in my mind.

Practically though that's more or less meaningless. I don't like it but if that was required for them to get the best return out there? At best, you're talking about 2 or 3 years where that money might matter to the Leafs and by then you'd really hope that the cap has grown to the point where we're talking about 1 or 1.5 percent of the cap.

 

[bustaheims]

Real_ESPNLeBrun: As per @TSNBobMcKenzie, Penguins trade Spaling, Kapanen, Harrington and two picks to Leafs for Kessel and two other contracts...

Interesting to see what that other parts are. Not a huge fan of holding onto the cap, but, whatever. It is what it is.

 

[Deebo]

Penguins trade Spaling, Kapanen, Harrington and two picks to Leafs for Kessel and two other contracts...

So no 2nd to pitts.

 

[ZBBM]

Phil Kessel + Eating 1.25M/year
Nick Spaling, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington, 1st round pick and another draft pick

That's a good haul IMO.  The retention is steepish but it just may indicate that other teams are accounting for his downsides.

 

[mr grieves]

If there is salary retention for 7 years and that's all they got, I'd rate this worse than anything Burke did.

The market is the market. The team can't just frown at it and make it better.

Sure. But the market doesn't always just output what's best for your team.

 

[Nik]

They can wait for it to improve or not make the deal.

I don't get the urgency to move him for that return. Not much of a risk of it getting worse than this.

Well, there is if he has a bad year and I think the urgency with which the Leafs made this deal is a sign Babcock didn't want to feature him in the offense to try and improve the value.

Teams were going to be reluctant to invest star money in a guy who might not be a franchise player. That wasn't going to change even if Kessel rebounded.

 

[Nik]

Sure. But the market doesn't always just output what's best for your team.

No, but if the decision is to tank you have to deal with the market all the same.

 

[bustaheims]

Spaling should return a reasonable pick at the deadline, especially if he produces in an expanded role with the Leafs. If the 2nd pick from Pittsburgh is a 3rd or better, it's not actually all that bad from a building for 5 years from now perspective.

 

[KW Sluggo]

TSN says Leafs are retaining 15% of Kessel's contract and that we also traded away a 2nd round pick.

If so, we gave up too much and got too little. I hope that is in corrects as I would not want to lose a 2nd round pick.

 

[Nik]

I really can't imagine the Leafs traded their 2nd rounder there. Maybe Pittsburgh's second rounder but there really should only be 10-12 spots difference between Pittsburgh's first and Toronto's second next year at absolute most.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxPO4fWoWA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

 

[cw]

Good riddance.

If they didn't retain salary, then you couldn't expect much for an overpaid player with mental/heart issues. If they retained salary, well, it kind of speaks to how his value in the league has dropped because they certainly shopped him and didn't get that much in return from the highest bidder on his list - a late 1st rounder - no top flight prospect.

I won't complain about what they got because I would have taken a 7th to get him out of the locker room.

Phil is up there with my most rotten Leafs of all time. Sure he had skill and he'll put up points. But in my book, he's a quitter - he has character issues since before he was drafted that he hasn't outgrown. I have little time for people like that. I'm glad he's gone.

 

[L K]

I really can't imagine the Leafs traded their 2nd rounder there. Maybe Pittsburgh's second rounder but there really should only be 10-12 spots difference between Pittsburgh's first and Toronto's second next year at absolute most.

Yeah, that might be giving them back their 2nd round pick from the Winnik trade.

 

[Deebo]

I won't complain about what they got because I would have taken a 7th to get him out of the locker room.

I'm glad the decisions are being made with less emotion than this.