Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagger
This is Phil Kessel the 25 year old winger vs Tyler Seguin the 21 year old center. This is comparing a guy in/ around his prime with a team built around him to a kid who forced his way into the lineup in his rookie year, and then exploded in his sophomore year(where many regress).
Adding those picks allowed the Bruins to be confident about their future, as when the time comes for the core to naturally evolve(as the Flames tried to ignore and now find themselves with no answers for this process) they had answers. Chara starts to regress? That sucks, but now Dougie Hamilton eats his minutes and looks like he'll excell. Marc Savard is injured? ####, but Tyler is here to claim back some production and will grow into a better player in that role.
Need 2nd line scoring? Ryan Spooner is right there.
If anything, trading Kessel allowed the Bruins to re-tool on the fly, and replace his production with cheaper players(like Horton) who offer a more well rounded game. Having young assets makes it easier to justify giving up pieces for the future as you've already recounted more. Horton gave them the size, toughness and physicality that they lacked in their top six - I'd argue if they'd kept Kessel they don't win the Cup.
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I'm not saying you're wrong about the deal, and I agree that long term you want Seguin, even though he doesn't even play center on his own team. But it's not like Kessel didn't also force his way onto his team as an 18 year old, had better numbers as a rookie than Seguin, before scoring 36 goals as a 3rd year player.
All I'm saying is, Kessel is a good player. It's not his fault his GM overpaid for him. And again, the question I was answering was not 'Kessel vs Everything TO gave up' it was 'Kessel vs Seguin'. And that's a closer conversation than most people want to admit. The difference is, you shouldn't build primarily around a winger, no matter how good.