NHL trade grade: Coyotes acquire Phil Kessel from Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins have done the unthinkable, trading two-time Stanley Cup champion Phil Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes. 

Phil Kessel has been on the trading block for the past few seasons. Each year, fans laughed it off as complete and utter nonsense. Well, now that the long-rumored Kessel trade has happened, it’s easy to see why. The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded Kessel, Dane Birks, and a 2021 fourth-round draft pick to the Arizona Coyotes for Alex Galchenyuk and prospect Pierre-Oliver Joseph.

Arizona has long been rumored to be the preferred landing spot for Kessel. Especially since long-time Kessel whisperer Rich Tocchet is their head coach. He used to coach the star in Pittsburgh and rumor has it, he kept things between Kessel and Mike Sullivan professional. Let’s take a look at this trade from both sides.

Penguins

This is a pretty underwhelming return for Kessel. On paper, they get a bargain bin version of the player they just traded – Galchenyuk. However, he’s a worse version of Kessel, both on offense and on defense. Kessel’s defense wasn’t good, but Galchenyuk’s might be even worse.

They get Phil’s salary cap off the books – $6.8 million over the next three seasons. That’s huge. But Galchenyk’s deal only lasts for one more year. And this year, the Penguins only save about $1.9 million, as Galchenyuk’s cap hit is $4.9 million.

Galchenyuk hit the 30 goal plateau during the 2015-16 season. However, since then, he has yet to hit 20 goals in any season. Galchenuk’s 41 points in the 2018-19 season are his lowest in any season since his 2013-14 season.

Joseph is an interesting prospect. I wrote about him earlier in my top 10 Arizona Coyotes prospects.

He’s intriguing to me because he’s a big defenseman (6’2″) who plays like he’s at least four inches smaller. Oliver-Joseph excels at what you’d expect a smaller defenseman to excel at – transition and moving the puck. He’s a very good skater, too. I’d have him higher, but he never really dominates the way you’d expect him to.

He’s got a good chance of being an NHL defenseman. However, Joseph’s hockey IQ has to improve for me to see him as a top four defenseman. And typically, that’s not a very easy thing to improve. A change of scenery could do him well and I like his tools, but he needs to figure out how to use them.

Grade: C. About as good as I figured a return for Kessel would look like. This is why I always thought the rumors were nonsense – why trade a great player for anything less than a great return? General Manager Jim Rutherford better have something up his sleeve. Baffling they didn’t get any picks for him, either.

Coyotes

For the Coyotes, I really like this trade. Kessel is reunited with his mentor Tocchet. It’s telling Kessel was willing to waive his no-trade clause to go to Arizona. He must like Tocchet a lot. The Coyotes need more dynamic players and Kessel certainly qualifies.

He immediately becomes their best forward. And with Tocchet in Kessel’s ear, I think he can remain a productive forward for the remainder of his contract. Defense has never been Kessel’s forte, but I’m thinking we’ll see a more motivated Phil.

The Coyotes got the goal scorer and dynamic forward they needed. And they gave up a very small price to do so.

Grade: A-. Really like this trade for Arizona.