The_Hater wrote:
I stated Kessel was a better offensive player in my post but the gap between them isn't huge either. The age gap is a good point however, for some reason I thought they were only 3 years apart. That does make a huge difference.
I guess our opinions on what Kessel means to the Leafs differ as I think Kessel is one-dimensional and having him as one of the leaders on the team is a huge reason for the teams recent lack of success. Also I never recommended losing Kessel for nothing, I recommended trading him instead of overpaying him. That aside, if the plan was to keep him I think Nonis did a terrible job with the negotiations. As my original post mentioned it's not the $8 million, it's the 8 year and the no trade clause that are the problems.
I don't even think it's a question of if this contract ends up looking really bad, just a question of when. Of course the same thing can be said about the Clarkson deal too.
If you trade him going into the UFA year, his value is compromised. That's just the way the market works. So, the Leafs could expect .80 cents on the dollar (likely not a talent-for-talent deal, either) in a trade or circumvent a Parise-type offer. This is just the way the NHL runs now. The cap allows even small market teams to throw haymaker deals.
It's highly debatable whether Kessel should be held accountable for the three years they didn't make the playoffs. You could easily point to goaltending, defense, coaching, penalty killing. And what's more, Kessel was a key member of last year's playoff team. So should the Leafs point to the past or look to the future, knowing that the UFA market is unfavourable and the trade market likely just as volatile? And, given the context that they're one of the younger teams in the league that are also winning, is it shrewd to disrupt what's working?