This isn’t the first time that Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler has been linked to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Eklund’s blog today explores the possibility of Steve Yzerman’s Bolts taking a run at the reportedly disenchanted Canucks pivot. The question this blogger will attempt to answer here is whether or not trading for Kesler makes sense for Tampa’s hockey team.
The Kesler-to-Tampa rumors started back just before the trade deadline when CBC’s Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Lightning were on Kesler’s list of six teams to which he would accept a trade. Here’s an excerpt from Friedman’s
’30 Thoughts’ column:
3. It is believed the six teams to which Kesler would accept a deal at the deadline were Anaheim, Chicago, Colorado, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. Only two -- the Ducks and Penguins -- were really in it, though.
Of course, as everyone knows, then-Canucks GM Mike Gillis elected not to deal the 29-year-old center. As Friedman notes there, only two teams were really in the running on deadline day. While the details of what Anaheim was offering are sketchy at best, the rumored Pittsburgh proposals were nowhere near fair value for a player of Kesler’s caliber.
I’m not going to sit here and rehash everything that has happened in Canucks-land since that fateful deadline day. In short, neither Mike Gillis nor John Tortorella remains employed, while Kesler’s future with the team remains up in the air. Simply put, new GM Jim Benning and President Trevor Linden have a tough decision to make this summer.
Moving back to the Tampa rumor, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that many Lightning fans immediately shot down the idea of acquiring Kesler. “He’s just another center,” they said. “He’s going to cost too much,” they cried. What some are failing to consider is that Kesler just might be a fit on the wing, as Tortorella often noted.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has made his love for Ryan Callahan abundantly apparent. Cooper likes Callahan’s grit, his willingness to battle in the corners, and his fearlessness when it comes to blocking shots, among other things. The trouble for Tampa Bay is that Callahan’s price tag just might be too much to bear. This is a player who turned down $6MM per season from the New York Rangers; would he accept less from the Lightning? I’m not sure. And this is where we get back to Kesler.
Like Callahan, Kesler plays that gritty game. Like Callahan, he isn’t afraid to take a hit, make a hit, block a shot, or go to the front of the net. Arguably unlike Callahan, however, he has been a fairly consistent offensive threat and solid possession player for a number of years now. This is a player who put up back-to-back 70-plus point seasons in 2010 and 2011.
While injuries have derailed things over the last couple seasons, it’s more than fair to say that Kesler brings more offense than Callahan, without sacrificing many of the intangibles that the Lightning organization grew to love. Moreover, with a deal that carries a $5MM cap hit through 2015-16, Kesler’s price tag is more than palatable. In fact, given where the market has been set over the last summer or two, Kesler's deal could be described as a steal.
The issue for Kesler in Vancouver has always been that the organization has struggled to find players to play with him. He needs a playmaker on that second line, and the Canucks just haven’t been able to find one. Well, Tampa has one in the form of Valtteri Filppula. Obviously it’s impossible to guess what the chemistry between those two players might look like, but I’d wager that Kesler would find success.
Given all the positives I’ve outlined above, it reasons to suggest that the price to acquire Kesler would be steep. Yzerman would have to be willing to sacrifice high draft picks and quality young players. The good news, if you’re in the ‘Acquire Kesler!’ camp, is that the Lightning have a lot of those assets. This Bolts team has four first round draft picks over the next two years, and one of the league’s best crop of prospects.
I’m not going to delve in and play the speculation game when it comes to potential trade packages, but I will say that any deal would likely include a number of assets that Bolts fans would struggle to part with. Further, the assets that would have to be shipped out in a Kesler deal are assets that could probably be better used to fix this Lightning team’s more pressing needs (i.e. on defense).
That’s where this becomes difficult. It’s no secret that the Bolts could use a player like Ryan Kesler, just as they used Ryan Callahan to end this year, but it’s also no secret that the issues on defense are more pressing. Sacrificing so many assets to acquire Kesler and heading into next season with the same defense that closed out this year isn’t an option. A balanced approach is needed.
So, while it would be great to net Kesler in a trade, I just don’t see a way that Yzerman can make that happen without shipping off the assets needed to get help on defense. If he could somehow make both happen, I'd be all over it.
Feel free to post trade proposals in the comments section, and let me know your thoughts on this rumor. As always, thanks for reading.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»