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Kessel Traded To Leafs for draft picks 09.18.09 at 9:59 pm ET
By Joe Haggerty

Phil Kessel finally has found a new home after a protracted summer of fruitless negotiations with the Bruins as a restricted free agent, and landed in Toronto as part of a much-discussed deal that sent three high draft picks back to Boston.  Late Friday night, the Bruins confirmed the deal, which had been reported as a done deal on both TSN and ESPN earlier in the evening. The Bruins scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. Saturday at the TD Garden for Boston GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss the bold, but not unexpected, move.

The Spoked 'B' and Phil Kessel filed for divorce on Friday night when he was traded to the Maple Leafs

The Spoked 'B' and Phil Kessel filed for divorce on Friday night when he was traded to the Maple Leafs

The Bruins are set to receive Toronto’s first- and second-round draft pick in 2010, and the Leafs’ first-round pick in 2011. With only $1.7 million worth of room under the salary cap, there was a distinct limit on potential position players coming back to Boston in the deal — and in the end there wasn’t a single prospect or established player sent to the B’s in exchange for a 21-year-old sharpshooter that led the team with 36 goals scored last season.

TSN reported that Kessel agreed to a five-year, $27 million contract with the Maple Leafs, which amounts to $5.4 million per season in average salary and in a cap hit to the Maple Leafs. Kessel had denied that he was looking for a $5 million per season contract earlier this summer while speaking with reporters, but the youngster earned that and then some from Toronto GM Brian Burke. Amazingly, Kessel becomes the highest paid player with the biggest salary cap hit on a Maple Leafs team in desperate need of scoring — and makes nearly $1 million more per season than defenseman Mike Komisarek’s $4.5 million per season.

WEEI.com first reported the schism between Kessel and the Bruins in negotiations several weeks ago, and the young goal-scorer reportedly steered a trade to Toronto by refusing to entertain a contract with any of the other potential trading partners for the Bruins. The Nashville Predators publicly voiced interest in Kessel, but the young sniper was determined to find a landing spot for himself in Toronto.

The question now becomes how an introverted young hockey superstar, known to shun the spotlight, will deal with the heightened scrutiny and attention he’s sure to receive as the new face of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kessel will be Toronto’s highest-paid player at $5.4 million per year, and — as such — will be labeled as the savior for a downtrodden hockey franchise looking to Burke for a way out of the Northeast Division cellar. Kessel has never dealt with the pressure of being “The Man” in a hockey-crazed environment like Toronto, and there are some legitimate questions how he’ll handle the added attention.

Both teams are rolling the dice here. The B’s are keeping the rest of their team intact amid salary cap limitations, and banking that Kessel will never become a game-changing 50-goal scorer with the Maple Leafs. If that happens, then the Bruins could regret the move for years to come. The Maple Leafs are gambling that the 21-year-old hockey wunderkind is just growing into his fast skating speed and deadly wrist shot, and Kessel will turn into the dynamic offensive force Toronto was missing on their roster. 

The 21-year-old winger led the Bruins last season with 36 goals, and he added 24 assists to total a career-high 60 points in 70 games. The return to full health of left wing Marco Sturm from left knee surgery along with continued offensive improvement for Blake Wheeler, Milan Lucic and David Krejci will off-set Kessel’s offensive productuon in the minds of B’s executives, but none of those players have the youngster’s set of scoring tools. His game-breaking ability can’t be duplicated by anybody else on the roster, and that’s certainly a factor that looms large if the B’s go through offensive struggles during the regular season.

Kessel was the team’s third-leading scorer in the playoffs, collecting six goals and five assists in 11 games. In fact, throughout his B’s career Kessel was a point-per-game player in the playoffs with 15 total points in 15 playoff games over the last two seasons. But the young forward clashed with B’s coach Claude Julien over his willingness to always play the kind of impassioned two-way hockey that the Bruins coach demands, and was benched for three games during the 2007-08 playoffs.

Kessel, drafted with the fifth overall pick in 2006 out of the University of Minnesota, ends his Bruins career with 126 points on 66 goals and 60 assists in 222 regular-season games.

Kessel, who had offseason rotator cuff and labrum surgery and is expected to be sidelined at least until November, overcame testicular cancer in 2006, his rookie season in the NHL. In 2007, the Wisconsin native was awarded the Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication to hockey. Kessel also missed 12 games with a bout of mononucleosis and the shoulder injury last season.

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  • Jesse

    We can all dispute and argue the fact that the Bruins did not get an NHL ready player or even a high prospect in return for Phil Kessel. I for one am not sold on the notion that PC and company are going to keep these draft picks in their back pockets. At this moment in time i think it’s logical to trade for draft picks rather than roster players. Draft picks don’t count against the salary cap and may hold more value in terms of key pieces in a future deal. With the Bruins salary cap space slightly under $2mill there was no way they could of taken “live” bodies in return.

    As the NHL financial uncertainty continues it is crucial for teams to have some money in reserve in case of injuries and potential trades during the season. Obviously the Bruins had no chance to re-sign Kessel even if they wanted to. In my opinion, i am not even sure they truly wanted him back to begin with. Let’s be realistic here. Kessel did not want to come back and the confrontation and communication issues inside the locker-room with Claude Julien was not helping the situation. Although Kessel denied reports earlier this summer that he was looking for a deal in the $5mill area he ends up signing a 5 year $27mill with Toronto, ironic.

    Anyways, Kessel is gone and he is not coming back, not now and not ever.
    Sure, he is just 21 years old with world class speed and skills you can’t teach but one man does not make up a team. Hockey is the most unified team sport in the world. It takes a whole group of guys forming a bond of unity to become something great. The Bruins have plenty of depth to cover the 36 goals Kessel scored in the 2008-2009 season. Let me put those 36 goals in perspective for you; Sturm had 9 goals while missing 60+ games with a knee injury while Patrice Bergeron had 8 coming off a concussion ailed season. (Sorry for my elementary math course) but 8+9 =17 goals, from two players that were going through a major injury plagued season. There is no doubt, when healthy, that both Marco Sturm (love the Sturm Face) and Patrice Bergeron are good for 25+goals.

    Bottom line is…The Bruins will do just fine this season.

    I would of loved to keep Kessel but not at the expense of the B’s future.

  • Steve

    Glad to see this locker room cancer go. Two first rounders and one second rounder is some pretty good compensation, not the best deal, but like jesse says “Draft picks don’t count against the salary cap and may hold more value in terms of key pieces in a future deal.” The B’s have a ton of talented youth in their system. I think the B’s made the right decision in keeping krejci. Only time will tell if I am wrong, but the B’s have looked great so far this preseason. Bergeron seems to have his skating legs and his skills coming back to him. It’s going to be difficult to repeat last years performance, but so far every year after the lockout they have been better. Maybe this will be the year they Stanley Cup Finals will be held in Boston. Now that the pansy Kessel is gone, we can get payers in the game that want to play tough, black and blue hockey.

  • Hockey Joe

    Well put, Jesse…i couldnt agree with you more. No one seems to remember that Sturm is coming back healthy and Patrice will start the year healthy as well. Also, no one seems to remember that Kessel wont be ready until November by all accounts and hes gonna be rusty and off to a slow start…just like he was when he came back from mono. While I dont think Phil is a pansy (sorry steve), he wasnt the player that was going to lead this team to Lord Stanley and for 3 draft picks, he had to go

    PS: Really glad i found the sane and logical section of this blog

  • Brian

    This was a very Patriots like move by the Bruins. Trading a former 1st round pick and turning it into 2 first rounds and a 2nd round was a good move. I like your thought Jesse about the picks possibly being dealt. If this team needs a player down the stretch, those picks could be useful.

    Ph1i’s not done developing, but the B’s did make the best of a bad situation.

  • rob

    Bruins and Patriots should never be used in the same sentence…

  • Roland

    I hope the Leafs knock the Bruins out of the playoffs, with Kessel scoring the winning goal. Very easy for the GM to say he didn’t want to stay in Boston…
    GM will be gone after this season after $4 mil Tim Thomas and wasting 3 mil on Derek Morris. That following the 4 Million he gave Ryder and the the millions he gives a washed up Patrice Bergeron, who is one more hit from joining Eric Lindos on the sidelines. Message to the Front Office: In todays NHL, offense is the name of the game!!!!!! You can wakeup from your Stanley Cup dreams now!

  • Sean

    This is typical Bruins PR, backstab and trash the player on his way out of town to make themselves look better. In Boston we call this a good old fashion Jacobs special.

  • Roland

    I can see it all coming…they trade Kessel for draft picks, then when they cannot score goals they ship the draft picks to someone else for someone cheaper to be under the cap. I also like how they make their captain stand in front of the microphone and trash the player as he is headed out the door.
    PC and the rest of the front office have ZERO class spreading the rumor that Phil wanted out of Boston. The real truth is THEY wanted Phil out of Boston.
    Very difficult for a 21 year old to go through what he went through this summer.

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