What To Do With Phil Kessel

Phil Kessel is a great player.  We like him.  Our kids like him.  Who doesn’t like him?  But the upcoming offseason will be an interesting one, and a key participant in those discussions will be Phil the Thrill.  He has been a top scorer without having top line support.  And we will be quite interested in seeing where he lands.

James Tanner offers a great idea on The Hockey Writers:

We’re all having fun discussing who the Leafs might trade and who they might get in exchange for virtually all their players. It seems all but certain the Leafs are going to move out Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf and maybe even Bernier and JVR as they attempt to rebuild their roster.

Hell, you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that Phil Kessel is all but being run out of town.

But just one thing: Phil kessel is at the absolute lowest point in his value. He is coming off his worst season, unfairly or not, he is taking the majority of the blame for his team’s failure and he just signed a long and expensive contract.

Some people are even talking about the Leafs retaining salary just to move him. (Which has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard).

But remember, Phil Kessel was a top-ten scorer for three years in a row without a good centre feeding him the puck and (mostly) never having any second line scoring on his team to take some defensive pressure off of him. It is also statistically likely that his horrendous second-half slump this past season was mostly about bad luck, and a little bit about factors he can’t control (team controversies, a culture of losing, a crappy roster, systematic mid-season changes etc.) rather than about him quitting on his team or his talent disappearing.

A Third Rebuilding Option:

I recently presented two other rebuilding options.

One was about trying to load up on draft picks for this year, trading for Jordan Staal and trying to be competitive immediately.

The second one was about strip-mining the team for young picks and parts and taking a more leisurely approach to being competitive.

This one is a hybrid and may be the craziest of all three:

Stay the course.

Read the rest of his analysis by clicking here.

Photo credit to Amanda.