Here is Ryan and he fires off on Phil Kessel…and you are off…..
I found out about this trade last night when I was at work. Let me tell ya… I was not pleased when I flipped open my phone to see that Darren Dreger was reporting that the deal was all but done. I made it clear the last week or so that Preds GM David Poile needed to make this move. And again, Nashville came up a bit short.
But this wasn’t Poile’s fault… he pushed very hard to acquire Phil Kessel, offering Jonathan Blum, a 1st rounder, and the rights to Alexander Radulov. The trade with Toronto ultimately falls on Kessel himself. Why would B’s GM Peter Chiarelli trade a budding star within the division, when there’s just as good of an offer from the Predators?? Also, it was reported that he preferred NHL-ready prospects over draft picks. That’s where Blum steps in, Nashville’s #1 pick from 2007. The offensive defenseman would have brought a dimension to Boston’s system that they do not have.
Plus you can’t forget the wild card in the proposed trade – Radulov. I bet you anything he’d be willing to comeback and play with Boston, who’s a true Cup contender. He also hasn’t burned any bridges there like he has in Nashville, which would make a transition to the NHL MUCH easier for him and the team. But Chiarelli opted to take two 1st rounders and a 2nd instead. And to be honest, the Preds’ 1st rounder next summer could very well be more valuable than Toronto’s.
So why would he pass up on a package that makes more sense?? In comes Kessel. We obviously don’t know the whole story behind this (in all likelihood, never will), but my thought is that Kessel had a lot of input in this deal (rightfully so). The scuttlebutt was that he wanted to play in Toronto over Nashville… which is understandable because the Leafs are a franchise filled with history, contrary to the Preds. But I’m sick of this universal opinion about hockey in Nashville. Until a Cup is won in the Music City, the thought process of many won’t change – and that probably still wouldn’t be enough. When you go to a big game in Nashville, it contends with any other big game in the league… believe me on that. The atmosphere is fantastic.
Kessel’s going to a media hotbed that will eat him alive if he doesn’t score 40 goals a year. And it’s not like Marc Savard, who has set-up a good amount of his goals since entering the league, is coming along with him. Who’s going to get him the puck… the rat-looking Mikhail Grabovski?? He doesn’t have any tools beside him up front with the Leafs like he did in Beantown. And there’s not much coming up (forwards wise) in the Leafs’ system besides Kadri and Tlusty. In Nashville, a lethal 1-2 punch of Kessel and Colin Wilson would have worked wonders for the Preds in the present and in the future.
And how about the $5.4 million a year he’s getting in this deal!? Even though he has a ton of potential, he’s only had one 30-goal season. He’s also already overcome more than a 20-year-old needs to endure in his life (cancer, mono, etc.). Personally, I would not have gone over $4.5 million for Kessel. He’s still very young and needs more time to mature on and off the ice. Boston is out of cap space, but Chiarelli did offer him a pretty nice contract earlier this summer – which he turned down. For Kessel to pass up the chance to win a Cup this year with the Bruins to take a larger paycheck north of the border tells you all you need to know about him. I’m not trying to suddenly bash him, because he is a really good player with a bright future. He just irked a lot of Bruins fans the wrong way by turning ’em down.
If you ask me, the dots no not connect in this situation. From Kessel handcuffing the team (almost Heatley-like) to Chiarelli choosing Toronto as a trade partner over Nashville to Burke overpaying for the kid, I’m still confused about it all. One thing I know for a fact, though, is that when Toronto visits Nashville on January 18, Kessel will be hearing boos from yours truly.
