There have been many good points about Kessel, he's a good player and with the right people around him, he'll continue to develop. But looking forward at our cap versus his production, should we?
Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe analyzed Kessel's goals over the past several seasons. Overall theme was that :.
1. he scored more goals per game in the 1st half of the season
2. scored majority of those goals against non-playoff teams
And we all remember his performance in last year's playoffs, enough said.
However, another thing to consider is that Tukka Rask, Blake Wheeler, Milan Lucic all come up for RFA in 2010-2011, a year that many NHL people are saying the cap will actually decrease.
The regular season was promising, but we see what happened in the playoffs, so there are clearly holes to fill. It is easy to say sign Kessel at $4.25 per, or trade for a puck carrying defenseman, which might cost you around Kessel money too.
But I think it might be best for Chiarelli to sit back, wait out the market, and see where guys are getting signed. There could be some good guys out there at a discount, but that might patch a whole for a year or two. Would it be better to wait it out a year and make sure we sign the guys we need to - Rask/Lucic, maybe Wheeler next year?
I'm torn with the Kessel thing (much like his rotator cuff) - so give me some arguments that support keeping him or letting him go and grabbing some cap space and draft picks.
You need to let him walk. If he were willing to take a 1 or 2 year deal at a discount like Krejci; I'd be willing to bring him back. Phil Kessel is, and always will be, a goal scorer with the potential to net 40+ every single year. However, as mentioned above; he doesn't do it when he counts. Against solid playoff teams during the regular season (NJ, Caps, Pens, Red Wings etc.) what did he do? This team needs more size and grit in front of the net; and as fun as Kessel is to watch, he'll never be able to provide that. If he were a scorer like Malkin or Zetterberg, it makes giving him 5 million a lot easier; unfortunately, he'll never reach that Type A star level. Let him go; use the 4.7 remaining on this years cap to resign Hunwick, have money to work with at the trade deadline (something that hurt the B's this past year), and most importantly bring back Luc, Wheeler and Tuukka next offseason.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree with what Dan said. Kessel spent most of his time scoring goals that didnt matter, even against non-playoff teams. Majority of his goals came with little impact. A lot of his goals came when the game was out of reach one way or another. He rarely, if ever, had game tying or game winning goals. Although he's a good asset to any team I dont think he's the answer to our team. He seems, at times, lazy and unwilling to push himself to reach that extra gear, and until he does I dont think he will be any better then a 35 goals a year kind of guy with little clutch impact. I say see how the offseason goes and dont be afraid to let him walk. I think there are more impact players that do the small things that we need to worry about(etc. Lucic and Wheeler). Also, with Thomas' age I dont think we have a choice with Rask. And spending the type of money that Kessel thinks he deserves might cause us to lose anyone of those players.
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