Former Maple Leafs winger Phil Kessel has been a central figure in the Pittsburgh Penguins playoff success so far, leading the club with 12 points and scoring two goals in their series-clinching 4-3 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
Kessel was acquired by Penguins GM Jim Rutherford last July to provide the club with a much needed trigger man for Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. The 28-year-old winger did not fit with either center in that role, but has thrived since being placed on the third line with Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin.
If Pittsburgh gets past Tampa Bay and wins the Stanley Cup, it is quite possible that Kessel and rookie goaltender Matt Murray will be the leading contenders for the Conn Smythe Trophy, but even if that happens it is unlikely that Toronto management has any regrets about trading the talented winger 10 months ago.
The Leafs got a pair of prospects(Scott Harrington and Kasperi Kapanen), a couple draft picks (Pittsburgh's 2016 1st and New Jersey's 3rd round pick), pending UFA Nick Spaling (who was part of the deal with San Jose that netted two future 2nd rounders) and cleared nearly $7 Million in cap space annually until 2022, but more importantly the move signalled the start of Team President Brendan Shanahan's teardown.
"I had said at the end of the (2014-15) season, there were going to be changes and for whatever reason, we had a lot of talented individuals on this team but as a group….the core group….it hadn't worked," Shanahan said last July. "This is about winning. Phil is certainly a very talented player, but we knew that changes had to come. I thank him for his six years here, very productive years
for him."
The trade enabled Toronto to move past one of the most acrimonious eras in the franchise's history. While not solely responsible for "Salute-gate" or the club's repeated collapses, the winger's aloof attitude and lack of leadership skills made him the poster child for the Leafs failures.
Kessel's scoring prowess likely would have prevented the club finishing low in the standings and getting a top draft pick and his inflexibility would have caused friction with Mike Babcock.
At the beginning of the 2014-15 season, Kessel was asked by head coach Randy Carlyle and later by Shanahan to move from right wing to left wing. The request was greeted with resistance by the Leafs leading scorer.
Last July, the consensus was that the deal was a win-win for both teams. Pittsburgh in the short term by adding Kessel to their great core group, while Toronto gets futures and frees up $47.6 Million in cap space over the next seven years.
Let's revisit this deal in four years, when Kessel is on the other side of 30 and on the down slope of his career.
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Toronto prospects Mitch Marner and JJ Piccinich are heading to the Mastercard Memorial Cup in Red Deer, AB, as the London Knights completed a sweep of the Niagara IceDogs in the OHL Championship with a 1-0 victory at the Meridian Center in St. Catharines on Wednesday.
Marner assisted on Christian Dvorak's game winning first period goal and leads the CHL in playoff scoring with 44 points (16 goals, 28 assists).
The Knights lost two games in the opening round of the OHL Playoffs to Owen Sound and since have swept the Kitchener Rangers, Erie Otters and Niagara for reach the Memorial Cup for the fourth time in five years.
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