Welcome to another edition of the Hockeybuzz hotstove.
With the Maple Leafs struggling to win hockey games and some suggesting a rebuild is necessary, the hotstove examines whether it's a good idea for the Leafs to move Phil Kessel.
Todd Cordell
If the Leafs decide they want to retool or rebuild, there are a few guys I'd move. Phil Kessel is not one of them.
Kessel is one of the best pure goal scorers (and point getters) in the NHL and it's very hard to get guys like that. For all the talk he's soft, he beat cancer as a teenager, and he hasn't missed a single game since Toronto acquired him. You don't see a lot of players that durable, especially when they're stars and play heavy minutes every night.
I think moving guys like Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul would make sense, but very few times do you get equal value when moving a star player like Kessel.
Ryan Wilson: Not until you try other things first With Phil Kessel you have one of the best pure snipers in all of hockey locked into a very fair value contract until he is 34 years old. This is a good contract for a very good player. You can trade him, but you'd better get some value in return. It would have to be like the trade they made to acquire him in reverse.
Personally I would be looking at trading guys like Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak, Dion Phaneuf, and David Clarkson (lol good luck) before Kessel.
William Nylander and Phil Kessel is a very appealing combination to look forward to. Try other trade avenues first.
Tim Chiasson No.
There is only one player in the entire NHL who has finished in the top ten in scoring each of the past three seasons. Phil Kessel. Point per game players also don't fall out of the sky.
Kessel isn't the problem - what's around Kessel is. He's the best player they've got and he'll be such for several years. The Leafs would be foolish to trade Phil Kessel away. What Kessel is missing is adequate insulation - and he has been since he arrived.
That being said, if he is traded, it wouldn't surprise me coming from the most dramatic, over-reacting, savage market in the busines
James Tanner Of course not. The Leafs have Rielly, Kadri, JVR, Bernier and NYlander. If you did a full rebuild, after five years, you'd be lucky to have five guys that good. So, what the Leafs need is to tear down all the non-core pieces like Clarkson and Komarov and Polak...basically the guys you add when you're close.....but trading phil is a ridiculous idea on so many levels. He is the NHL's most constant goal scorer for the last five years.
Problem is, you don't win by having a winger as your best guy. The Leafs goal should be to draft a forward who along with JVR, Nylander, Kadri and Kessel makes a very potent attack for years to come.
The Leafs need a #1 C and a #1 D. Get that and they can totally win with Kessel. Get rid of the junk surrounding him and they'll have cap space.
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