[Poe969]

Kessel is an elite offensive player in the NHL, he just has a horrible contract. He could probably be traded with the leafs not retaining any of his contract but it would be tough. The more the leafs retain, the more teams will be interested and the more of a return he'd bring back in a trade. If his contract was a million dollars less per season and a couple years shorter, they'd get an amazing return. It isn't.

Kessel will be traded, and most likely this week. The biggest issue in the whole trade scenario isn't Kessel's value because everyone knows he is an offensive talent in this league. The issue is his contract so the pressure is all on the leafs because they have to retain more of his salary to get more of a return. It's unfortunate for them that they have to pay for their previous mistakes but they will have to if they want to get a decent return.

To be honest, if the leafs retained 50% of his salary (I know it won't happen, don't get upset, just an example), I would love to have him on the Flames. At his full contract I don't want him anywhere near the team. Everything is in the leafs hands at this point, how much do they want to admit that his contract was a mistake that they'll have to pay for? They won't really come out of this looking good because they'll either have to take back a lot of his contract and have a cap hit for the duration of his contract OR they'll have to take back a lot less than Kessel's market value in order to rid themselves of his contract.