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The drama surrounding Phil Kessel has finally come to an end as the Boston Bruins have traded their disgruntled sniper to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 1st and a 2nd round pick in 2010, and a 1st round pick in 2011 pending a trade call which is currently underway.

Kessel and the Maple Leafs then quickly agreed to terms on a new five-year, $27 million deal.

The trade ends a saga that began during the lead-up to the NHL Draft when Kessel originally appeared to be headed to Toronto in exchange for defenceman Tomas Kaberle and a draft pick. However, the deal was scuttled at the last moment due to a miscommunication over the pick.

The Bruins had been unable to re-sign the 21-year old Kessel and the two sides were miles apart on a new contract. A restricted free agent, Kessel was reportedly looking for a deal in the neighbourhood of $4-5 million a season, while the Bruins, who are right up against the league mandated $56.8 million salary cap, could not afford to sign the Madison, Wisconsin native to the terms he desired.

WEFFPIM wrote:That's an awful lot of draft picks given away for a team that could use them

Late in the week, the Leafs were confident they had a player + pick deal worked out that would satisfy the Bruins. The rumoured deal was White, the choice of Kulemin or Tlusty, a 1st and a 3rd for Kessel and the choice of either a 2nd or a salary dump (Sturm or Kobasew).

Realizing a deal between Toronto and Boston was close, Nashville — unwilling to part with top prospect Colin Wilson in place of Radulov — pulled Blum out of their offer and replaced him with a young, high-value defender: Ryan Suter.

Also realizing that Toronto was very close to landing Kessel, the New York Rangers offered up a deal that is said to have included the rights to Brandon Dubinsky, a 1st and a top defensive prospect (rumoured to be Sanguinetti or Del Zotto).

GswStorm3 wrote:The Leafs are going to suck the next two years. They basically gave up two top 10 picks. No Savard to pass to Kessel also doesn't help at all.

cereal_killer81 wrote:there's a youtube clip out there that shows Savard was not a huge factor in kessel's goals.

regardless, was Savard's big assist numbers a product of him or those around him? not a bruins fan, so i have no idea. but i just hate how everyone is saying kessel's numbers are only because of savard. I'm not a big hockey brain, but I like to think I can hold my own.

With the youth coming in (those signed without giving up anything - Bozak, Hansen, Monster) those are potential top ten picks that are free agent signings. The Leafs will need extremely bad luck to end up being a top ten pick team. They'll end up just in or just out of the playoffs, making those picks mid-round and I've heard rumours that this coming draft is not very deep (and heard one that it's a decent one).

I don't see why everyone is concerned with keeping draft picks in a rebuilding mode (when the moves made this offseason, make the Leafs competitive beyond the bottom third of the league) and having a player, a former 5th overall pick, that has gone through alot in his young life as well as shown he can contribute, is worse than having two first rounders, that should be middle of the round picks, that will be 2-3 years before they can contribute.

Kessel will be in his prime and will have grown with the other Leafs, Schenn, Stalberg, Monster, Hansen, Kadri, Bozak, when they will be in their prime.

Sorry it's long, I just don't see why those value too much on picks that will take a few years to get to the majors, and won't be top 5 or ten picks.

As for Radulov (again, not a Leaf, so my info may be off), but wasn't he not playing in the NHL this year? If that is the case, why would the Bruins want him?

timd1218 wrote:

cereal_killer81 wrote:there's a youtube clip out there that shows Savard was not a huge factor in kessel's goals.

regardless, was Savard's big assist numbers a product of him or those around him? not a bruins fan, so i have no idea. but i just hate how everyone is saying kessel's numbers are only because of savard. I'm not a big hockey brain, but I like to think I can hold my own.

With the youth coming in (those signed without giving up anything - Bozak, Hansen, Monster) those are potential top ten picks that are free agent signings. The Leafs will need extremely bad luck to end up being a top ten pick team. They'll end up just in or just out of the playoffs, making those picks mid-round and I've heard rumours that this coming draft is not very deep (and heard one that it's a decent one).

I don't see why everyone is concerned with keeping draft picks in a rebuilding mode (when the moves made this offseason, make the Leafs competitive beyond the bottom third of the league) and having a player, a former 5th overall pick, that has gone through alot in his young life as well as shown he can contribute, is worse than having two first rounders, that should be middle of the round picks, that will be 2-3 years before they can contribute.

Kessel will be in his prime and will have grown with the other Leafs, Schenn, Stalberg, Monster, Hansen, Kadri, Bozak, when they will be in their prime.

Sorry it's long, I just don't see why those value too much on picks that will take a few years to get to the majors, and won't be top 5 or ten picks.

As for Radulov (again, not a Leaf, so my info may be off), but wasn't he not playing in the NHL this year? If that is the case, why would the Bruins want him?

First off, Kessel can thank Marc Savard for the season he had. Savard is one helluva playmaker. Look at his career stats, he's always had big time assists.

The reason a lot of people are down on this trade is because Kessel will have an extremely difficult time dealing with the Toronto media. If he starts out slow, the media will be all over him and I don't think he is mature enough to handle that.

I won't say Christian Hansen is a potential top 10 pick. He went undrafted for a reason. I'm rooting for the kid because he is a local kid and his dad kicks ass, but that's a stretch.

And the reason you can say the first one will be a top 10 pick is because Toronto doesn't have a goalie and they have a young team.

timd1218 wrote:

cereal_killer81 wrote:there's a youtube clip out there that shows Savard was not a huge factor in kessel's goals.

regardless, was Savard's big assist numbers a product of him or those around him? not a bruins fan, so i have no idea. but i just hate how everyone is saying kessel's numbers are only because of savard. I'm not a big hockey brain, but I like to think I can hold my own.

With the youth coming in (those signed without giving up anything - Bozak, Hansen, Monster) those are potential top ten picks that are free agent signings. The Leafs will need extremely bad luck to end up being a top ten pick team. They'll end up just in or just out of the playoffs, making those picks mid-round and I've heard rumours that this coming draft is not very deep (and heard one that it's a decent one).

I don't see why everyone is concerned with keeping draft picks in a rebuilding mode (when the moves made this offseason, make the Leafs competitive beyond the bottom third of the league) and having a player, a former 5th overall pick, that has gone through alot in his young life as well as shown he can contribute, is worse than having two first rounders, that should be middle of the round picks, that will be 2-3 years before they can contribute.

Kessel will be in his prime and will have grown with the other Leafs, Schenn, Stalberg, Monster, Hansen, Kadri, Bozak, when they will be in their prime.

Sorry it's long, I just don't see why those value too much on picks that will take a few years to get to the majors, and won't be top 5 or ten picks.

As for Radulov (again, not a Leaf, so my info may be off), but wasn't he not playing in the NHL this year? If that is the case, why would the Bruins want him?

First off, Kessel can thank Marc Savard for the season he had. Savard is one helluva playmaker. Look at his career stats, he's always had big time assists.

The reason a lot of people are down on this trade is because Kessel will have an extremely difficult time dealing with the Toronto media. If he starts out slow, the media will be all over him and I don't think he is mature enough to handle that.

I won't say Christian Hansen is a potential top 10 pick. He went undrafted for a reason. I'm rooting for the kid because he is a local kid and his dad kicks ass, but that's a stretch.

And the reason you can say the first one will be a top 10 pick is because Toronto doesn't have a goalie and they have a young team.

Celtics_Champs wrote:um quick answers, he'll be fine without savard. But don't under-rate savards awesomness.

he can't handle tough scrutiny from the media.

he's a helluva player so leafs fans should be nothing but happy.

Crowned wrote:First off, it's probably a good idea to reserve judgement about Kessel playing without Savard until he actually does. You, nor I, can determine whether or not Kessel can succeed without Savard, so that's an argument you really cannot make at this point, and it should be taken with a grain of salt.

Difficult time dealing with the media? How do you know? Again, begin to make as many comments as you'd like when Kessel buckles under the media. Until then, I still don't see how you can predict how he's going to handle playing in Toronto.

Many players go undrafted. Many players get drafted in later rounds, look at our very own roster. Where was Stalberg drafted? Kaberle? What about Datsyuk or Zetterberg? To say 'there's a reason he went undrafted really doesn't make sense. Is there a reason that Daigle was drafted where he was? What about Patrick Stefan?

The draft is a crapshoot. Where players are drafted is determined by the amount of potential teams think they possess. It`s determined by how successful they were in juniors, college or in europe. The outcome really isn`t determined until they reach the NHL, or if they ever do. I really don`t care if a player is drafted first, or never drafted at all. There have been undrafted players that have been better than first overall picks.

I don`t agree that Hanson is the equivalent to a top 10 pick, but your argument is incredibly flawed, as ``he went undrafted for a reason`` just doesn`t make sense.

Griff83 wrote:
This argument is getting so tiresome. You and many others make it sound like Kessel was just sitting beside the net and feasting off of slick Marc Savard passs's and all Kessel had to do was tip the puck into a open net. This is a very badly uninformed opinion and heres the video evidence to back it up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqXSQz6FI5s

As you can see Kessel does alot of the work himself on a big number of the goals. This kid has been a elite goal scorer from a very young age and that isnt going to change all the sudden because hes not playing with Marc Savard.

timd1218 wrote:

Griff83 wrote:
This argument is getting so tiresome. You and many others make it sound like Kessel was just sitting beside the net and feasting off of slick Marc Savard passs's and all Kessel had to do was tip the puck into a open net. This is a very badly uninformed opinion and heres the video evidence to back it up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqXSQz6FI5s

As you can see Kessel does alot of the work himself on a big number of the goals. This kid has been a elite goal scorer from a very young age and that isnt going to change all the sudden because hes not playing with Marc Savard.

Yeah, I exaggerated a bit on Kessel needing Savard. Kessel will probably do fine, but personally, I don't think the media in Toronto will be happy with Kessel doing just "fine." He's a top line player now and getting paid like that. Toronto is going to expect a lot more then that. They'll expect him to be a great player. And if he goes on a cold streak, the media will be all over him. I'm just curious to see how he'll take it. It will be a lot worse in Toronto then Boston.

Griff83 wrote:

timd1218 wrote:

Griff83 wrote:
This argument is getting so tiresome. You and many others make it sound like Kessel was just sitting beside the net and feasting off of slick Marc Savard passs's and all Kessel had to do was tip the puck into a open net. This is a very badly uninformed opinion and heres the video evidence to back it up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqXSQz6FI5s

As you can see Kessel does alot of the work himself on a big number of the goals. This kid has been a elite goal scorer from a very young age and that isnt going to change all the sudden because hes not playing with Marc Savard.

Yeah, I exaggerated a bit on Kessel needing Savard. Kessel will probably do fine, but personally, I don't think the media in Toronto will be happy with Kessel doing just "fine." He's a top line player now and getting paid like that. Toronto is going to expect a lot more then that. They'll expect him to be a great player. And if he goes on a cold streak, the media will be all over him. I'm just curious to see how he'll take it. It will be a lot worse in Toronto then Boston.

Most Leaf fans understand that hes not going to come in right away and score 45-50 goals a season mostly due to who he would be playing with. It really doesnt matter what he does this upcoming season as what he does when this team is ready to challenge (most would be happy with 25-30 goals in 60 games this season). Remember the kid is only 21 years old and not even close to his prime years. Leafs have Kadri waiting in the wings and will be on this team fulltime next season and those two would make a dynamic duo. We also have about 15 million in capspace next offseason and will be able to make a play at someone like Marleau or Savard/Kovalchuk if they reach free agency.

After this season Kessel will have plenty of options of players to play with.