Ryan Kesler- " I left to win a cup... I honestly regret that now" Kesler on demanding a trade out of Van

Raistlin

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Aug 25, 2006
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I think Canuck fans appreciate his way of playing, he gave it his all while winning that Selke. And on the most dominant team in recent memory (the jets may break that), he was an integral part of it and almost singlehandedly got the team through Nashville through sheer will it seems.

Whats more, in hindsight, his body absolutely paid the price for that success.

Vancouuver fans repsect that. forcing his way out was a selfish thing, he abandoned his brothers and chased glory, he didnt need to address that at all, and would still be accepted back in the fold, but he did. Hey, thats accountability.

Some players that will never be respected in vancouver are the disruptive ones that led to the teams middling history. Guys like Messier, Virtanen, Keenan, Jeff Brown(?), theres good reason for those guys, but vancouver fans are generally forgiving.

Kesler was treated like a God in this city. He lived it up for his entire career here. Many, many stories of his antics out partying.
him and Burrows are notorious..... but hey they are young hockey players.... the folly of youth I guess.
 
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BHawk21

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I think Canuck fans appreciate his way of playing, he gave it his all while winning that Selke. And on the most dominant team in recent memory (the jets may break that), he was an integral part of it and almost singlehandedly got the team through Nashville through sheer will it seems.

Whats more, in hindsight, his body absolutely paid the price for that success.

Vancouuver fans repsect that. forcing his way out was a selfish thing, he abandoned his brothers and chased glory, he didnt need to address that at all, and would still be accepted back in the fold, but he did. Hey, thats accountability.

Some players that will never be respected in vancouver are the disruptive ones that led to the teams middling history. Guys like Messier, Virtanen, Keenan, Jeff Brown(?), theres good reason for those guys, but vancouver fans are generally forgiving.


him and Burrows are notorious..... but hey they are young hockey players.... the folly of youth I guess.
HUH
 

kvladimir

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Dec 1, 2010
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IMO the only ex-Nuck who is still particularly hated by Nucks fans is Messier.

Some players that will never be respected in vancouver are the disruptive ones that led to the teams middling history. Guys like Messier, Virtanen, Keenan, Jeff Brown(?), theres good reason for those guys, but vancouver fans are generally forgiving.
Haha, was going to say... good additions. I don't think he counts as an ex-Canuck, but maybe Janney? I doubt he would be welcomed warmly... :help:
 

WhatTheDuck

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I don't take issue with it as a Ducks fan, he wouldn't be saying it if he had won in Anaheim, but didn't. If you're not a cup winner, the next best honor is being a career legend in your city. I understand the sentiment.

The 2015 Ducks were a Cup worthy team, a couple Hawks players were quoted saying the Ducks were easily their toughest competition that year. A couple bounces away from being a different story.
 

crowi

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He broke down way too early to be complaining about not winning. He's a warrior, but give me a break. Ducks as a whole definitely should've done better than they did when we was playing.
 

Melrose Munch

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I honestly don't blame him one bit for trying to force his way onto a contender back in 2014. We were an absolute mess post 2013 and he still had a few good years in him to try and win a cup. He could have chased the money after his selke calibre years but he signed a sweetheart deal with us while we were contenders. He was a freaking warrior for us and put his body through the ringer too.

I find it really amazing how many Swedes and Americans really love/loved playing in Vancouver. And how few Canadians seem to like it.
Vancouver gets a lot of FAs (rare for Canada), but we are weenies about the weather and media.
 

snag

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Feb 22, 2014
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First, 14 years ago isn't recent.

Second, what's your criteria for "dominance"?

Since then, the...

22/23 Bruins
18/19 Lightning
21/22 Panthers
15/16 Capitals
21/22 Avalanche
16/17 Capitals
23/24 Rangers

...all had "better" seasons.
 

Raistlin

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First, 14 years ago isn't recent.

Second, what's your criteria for "dominance"?

Since then, the...

22/23 Bruins
18/19 Lightning
21/22 Panthers
15/16 Capitals
21/22 Avalanche
16/17 Capitals
23/24 Rangers

...all had "better" seasons.
I recall there was a thread about it on the main boards. its obviously not just points in a season,. #1GA, #1GF, #1PP #3PK and a slew of advanced stats.
 
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Once a schmuck always a schmuck. I'm sure it's nice fan service for Vancouver and all but yeah you're obviously going to regret making a decision if it didn't work out for you. Very profound.

I'm so glad this guy is out of the league. My last memory of him is Ryan Johansen calling him out for playing like the douche he's always been. Adios Ryan, I'm glad you never won anything, what a loser.



Hilariously he blocked a trade to the Penguins at the 2014 deadline and the Penguins ended up winning 2 cups shortly after. Granted I don't know if that would have happened had the Kesler trade actually happened, they almost certainly couldn't have acquired Kessel had they traded for Kesler.
Why would anyone block a trade to go play with Crosby and Malkin. That's insane.

He made it to the conference finals twice with the Ducks. They choked really hard in 2015 IMO, the Canucks were on the downswing by that time anyways.
Choked? No. They lost to the Cup champs. The Ducks were a very good team who just ran into a great team.
 

brentashton

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Jan 21, 2018
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We always complain that hockey players are too Vanilla and never reveal anything which is why this interview of Kesler was very refreshing.

Its not often that Hockey players or pro athletes will admit to making a mistake in their playing career, especially when it comes to demanding a trade out of a city.

Kesler says he regrets demanding a trade out of Vancouver to go chase a cup, and that he would love nothing more than to sign a 1 day contract and retire as a Canuck.

lol. No one feels bad for that asshole
 

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Well there was a question kind of hanging in the air at the time if the Penguins could ever get it done again. Plus possibly having to play 3rd line center which I can imagine he didn't want to do.
Jordan Staal was an invaluable asset to those Pens teams in his prime. The Pens had the best 1-2-3 punch in the league. Having Crosby and Malkin on the top 2 lines to do their thing and then being able to send out Ryan Kesler against the opps 1st lines, especially in the soft (at the time) Eastern Conference would have been a killer asset.

It may have meant no Phil Kessel in Pittsburgh however and he was equally influential in those two Cup wins by adding a 1-2-3 punch of scoring lines that were matchup hell.

In general I find it strange that very good players aren't flocking, even taking pay-cuts, to go play with McDrai for instance. Patrick Kane was a UFA and could've cheaply went anywhere. Instead of being great scoring depth and padding his numbers (especially on the PP) and have a great shot at a Cup with McDavid and Draisaitl in Edmonton, he'd rather play on all O6 teams and suffer in Detroit.
 

Iggys Dome

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Once a schmuck always a schmuck. I'm sure it's nice fan service for Vancouver and all but yeah you're obviously going to regret making a decision if it didn't work out for you. Very profound.

I'm so glad this guy is out of the league. My last memory of him is Ryan Johansen calling him out for playing like the douche he's always been. Adios Ryan, I'm glad you never won anything, what a loser.




Why would anyone block a trade to go play with Crosby and Malkin. That's insane.


Choked? No. They lost to the Cup champs. The Ducks were a very good team who just ran into a great team.


They blew a 3-2 series lead in the conference final, that’s choking to me. Chicago was a great team but Anaheim let that slip through their fingers.
 

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They blew a 3-2 series lead in the conference final, that’s choking to me. Chicago was a great team but Anaheim let that slip through their fingers.
It was a very close series the first 6 games. I agree they completely flopped in game 7 but you can’t choke a series when you’re playing a team that won 2 Cups and went to 2 WCF the 5 years prior.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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handcuffed the org that way

the delusion that if kesler hadn’t controlled where he went we would have gotten a better deal… because always benning always exercised his patience and never just took the first stupid thing someone offered him

i remember bieksa ribbing kesler for being the only guy on the team dumb enough to not buy a house and pocket a bonus few mill on their way out of town

and once upon a time the late great pat quinn said publicly that he regretted trading away gus adams to unite the courtnall brothers. because that was his second clutchest guy, and even getting his brother didn’t stop our clutchest guy from walking the first chance he got.
 

LeBrun is a Clown

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Sep 19, 2018
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If he would have won a cup, he wouldn't have regretted it :dunno:

It's a "since I didn't win anyway, I would have preferred to stay" thought. He'd pick not winning in Vancouver over not winning anywhere else, but he at the time left Vancouver because he wanted to win.

Hilariously he blocked a trade to the Penguins at the 2014 deadline and the Penguins ended up winning 2 cups shortly after. Granted I don't know if that would have happened had the Kesler trade actually happened, they almost certainly couldn't have acquired Kessel had they traded for Kesler.
They didn’t have a trade in place for Keslers OK, iirc. Kesler had a NMC, gave VAN 3 teams, ANA, CHI, and PIT, which two of the three couldn’t afford him with the cap, forcing himself onto Anaheim. There’s a reason why Anaheim didn’t trade the Ottawa pick to Vancouver when they really should have value-wise
 

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