My accomplice and I just turned off the DVD of the 1st season of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (which should tell you quite a bit about me and my squiggly ways) and landed on TSN, who are reporting that fully-gruntled winger Phil Kessel has just been traded to the Maple Leafs.Coming back Boston's way are a first and second round pick in next year's draft and a first round pick the year after. So...uh...some future success, I guess.
Kessel will be rewarded with a contract that pays him $5.4 million dollars a season.
Now, call me old fashioned, but there was a time when a team would never trade a high-potency player within the Conference, let alone the same Division, and never to another Original Six rival. So I guess this is the new NHL.
Or, maybe the new NHL is the one where guys who put up numbers like 29 points in 70 games, 37 points in 82 games and 70 points in 80 games deserve $5.4 million a year. Maybe everyone is Bobby Holik now. In the future, everyone will be Bobby Holik for 15 minutes.
However, I'm not going to rag on Phil Kessel. Instead, I'll simply provide a link to the very funny Big Bad Bruins blog, who accurately sum up Kessel with a very astute math equation.
I guess we'll see you around, Phil...around eight times this year. I sincerely hope Toronto treats you like it treats everyone else. You deserve that, at least.
4 comments:
Pretty good business, I'd say, for the Bruins. Kind of a no-brainer when you look at it (given Kessel was only ever going to end up a Leaf - you would think this would have weakened the Bruins' bargaining power...)
It's true. I guess the hardest part for B's fans is that Kessel could go either way (he could be great, or he could be Sergei Berezen).
I would've thought that they'd get a player as well, but it would probably not be one you'd want when the meat of the deal is the prime draft picks.
Still, they've got a lot of "future" in the org right now...
Fanx for the comment, buddies.
It's weird, that's the only math equation I've ever enjoyed figuring out!
Something has been bothering me though, and your post touched upon it. I don't like the fact that he remained in the division, let alone the freakin' conference. The days of being traded to Edmonton or Vancouver seem to be behind us. We'll see a whole bunch of the Leafs this year. Someone (I'm guess Stuart) is going to BURY Kessel when he sees him in the corner. GO B'S
Kessel may explode into being a great player (and Julien / Chiarelli admit they think he will), but hardly any player can come into the league in November and have an immediate impact. Especially if they've had their shoulders surgically repaired.
If he plays well, it will only be in the second half of the year, which, sadly, is when Toronto will most need him. But if they miss they playoffs, obviously, the Bruins picks are much higher in the draft (one more reason to hope for the Leafs missing the playoffs again).
Thanks for the comment!
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