Quote:
Originally Posted by bax
Uhhhhh what? 2 Stanley Cups and Kessel had 70 points last year. Why would they want to trade him?
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Well it was spelled out in the quote. Because he's a one-dimensional scoring winger who has average size, is non-physical and doesn't excel without the puck. If he's not scoring he's not helping. Almost 50% of his points came on the powerplay.
IMO this is the type of player that is most overrated in the NHL. A lot of fans love flashy scorers, the types of player that make the highlight reels. But unfortunately NHL forwards often get paid on points and one-dimensional scoring wingers are therefore usually overpaid in comparison to their value to the team.
It's why a lot of GM's talk about building through the middle. Emphasizing goaltending, defense and centres. Those are the most critical positions in hockey. Goal scoring wingers basically compliment your centres but they rarely drive the play themselves. Very few teams built around goal scoring wingers as their franchise player or most expensive player go anywhere. An elite centre can make a 20-30 goal scorer out of a variety of wingers (see Lemieux, Gretzky, Crosby, etc.) An elite goal scoring winger doesn't usually elevate the play of his linemates in the same way (see Iginla, Nash, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, etc). In fact they often depend somewhat on having a good playmaking centre to get them the puck. Wingers have less impact in your own zone because centres are relied on much more heavily for defensive assignments.
Kessel isn't looking like an elite goal scoring winger anymore. You'd think if he could get 40 in TOR he would easily repeat that on a team with Crosby and Malkin but he's failed to elevate his game playing on a team that has some of the best centres in the league. His cap hit means he should be one of the most important players on the team but his value to their team lags behind the goalie, the top 4 defense and the centres.
I'd say in short that the reason they're looking to move him is because they believe he's overpaid in comparison to his value to the team. And IMO that happens often with one-dimensional goal scoring wingers. Bet you every team in the league would rather have a Wayne Simmonds on his contract than Phil Kessel on his contract. You'd rather pay for an elite centre and then get them a nice complimentary power forward who can do the dirty work along the boards and in front of the net. There's danger in committing too much of the cap to one-dimensional goal scoring wingers.
And this is why you saw NJ buyout Cammalleri IMO.