Pittsburgh Penguins Trade Rumors: Phil Kessel On the Trading Block?
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist believes the Pittsburgh Penguins could trade Phil Kessel soon. How realistic are these trade rumors?
The Pittsburgh Penguins have already endured quite a bit of change after winning two straight Stanley Cups. Out are Marc-Andre Fleury, Trevor Daley, Jason Botterill, Rick Tocchet, Nick Bonino and Chris Kunitz. Replacing them are Antti Niemi and Mark Recchi, among others. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook thinks Tocchet’s departure could spell the end of Phil Kessel’s time with the team.
"It was clear in June, by the end of the Penguins’ second consecutive Stanley Cup run, that the organization wasn’t thrilled with Kessel. He scored 23 goals in 82 games during the regular season, not nearly enough for a player with his marvelous shooting skills. Even though he had 23 points in the 25 postseason games, it was hard to find anyone in organization to say he was playing well."
On paper, trading Kessel isn’t as crazy of an idea as it sounds. If Pittsburgh can get a huge return for the soon to be 30-year-old forward with five years left on his deal, they should do it. The Penguins would get valuable cap space to acquire some additional pieces to help the team build now and in the future.
However, trading Kessel for the reasons suggested by Cook seems silly. A huge reason why the Penguins have won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles has been their elite forward depth. With two elite centers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and an elite talent at wing in Kessel, Pittsburgh’s hard to stop. Why try to tinker with what has worked so well?
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Kessel was acquired to score goals, but obviously he brings more to the table. As much as Kessel has gotten blasted for his conditioning, he hasn’t missed a game since the 2009-10 season. Despite playing an average of 18:10 a game with Pittsburgh, a decrease from his 19:45 average with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he hasn’t seen a huge decrease in his scoring. Kessel went from 2.13 points per 60 minutes at even strength in Toronto to 1.99 per 60 minutes in Pittsburgh. If you factor in all situations, the difference shrinks to 2.67 per 60 minutes with the Maple Leafs and 2.58 with the Penguins.
While he hasn’t scored goals as expected, he has been an excellent playmaker. And Kessel has been consistently productive in the postseason. One could argue he should have won the Conn Smythe in 2016 because of how he picked up his game when Crosby and Malkin were struggling.
Right now, it’s hard to view the Penguins as anything but a “win now” team. They have two of the top three centers in the league (when healthy) and for the time being, their salary cap concerns are minimal. The latter won’t be true in two seasons because Conor Sheary, Brian Dumoulin, Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel will each be getting pay raises once they become restricted free agents. Sheary and Dumoulin are currently RFAs while Rust will be one in 2018 and Guentzel in 2019. So Pittsburgh should be gearing up to win as much as possible over the next two years, since it will be much harder to do so after.
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Down the line, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kessel get traded. This could happen as soon as after the 2018-19 season. But right now, it’s hard to imagine a return that makes the Penguins better than Kessel makes them.