I’m also reading that a 2nd rounder might do it. Bit of a gamble though.... but he is RFA next year, he has 9 points in 45 games so far this yearTheres a post on the trade board saying the price is very high.
I’m also reading that a 2nd rounder might do it. Bit of a gamble though.... but he is RFA next year, he has 9 points in 45 games so far this yearTheres a post on the trade board saying the price is very high.
Wonder what the oilers would want for Jesse Puljujarvi?
They are up against the cap pretty bad. This guy has had a lot of potential and could be interesting to see what he could do on this team. He is only 20 so most likely would take a full year or so for him to get the pens system.
Pearson for a 3rd, trade that 3rd with JJ for a 7th or an AHL contract. Could we pull that off?I have a better chance of winning the lottery than JR does of pawning off Kessel and Johnson on a team WITHOUT retaining or taking back a bad contract.
Poor development, remember SchultzHe’s awful.
It is insane to me the amount of adjustment in terms of money they are sitting to facilitate Wilson.
I'd take Wilson's play in recent games over Pearson's. Pearson should be the better player, but of the two, Wilson has been the more effective player recently.
If he has defensive issues, it isn't that great of a contract.
If your #1C doesn't want to play with him and your #1A C isn't that defensively responsible, that's an issue as well.
And if he isn't actually good enough to drive a line without either of those players (he isn't), then his lines are going to play his opponents to a draw 5-on-5. At best. Not great considering his elite status and his salary.
Why can't you trade Kessel for another skilled winger, though? Would you really downgrade by trading Kessel and bringing in say Zucker?
If they're moving Kessel, I want to talk to Nashville to see if you can get Fiala as the main piece for him. Fiala, a prospect and a 1st for Kessel seems like a great return to me.
Because you likely get a Kessel lite on LW to play with Malkin or a RD since we likely lose Schultz after next season.
Or you cling to Kessel because he had a great run two seasons ago and because of his powerplay prowess ignoring the elephant in the room which is he doesn’t improve either of Sid or Malkin’s game and can’t carry a third line.
It's not really a "fantasy" when it seems pretty likely that the Penguins trade Kessel sometime in the next 3 years
I mean, let's be realistic here. The Penguins are almost definitely trading Kessel this off-season unless they win the cup.
He is when it comes to both sides of the puck and playing with Sid and Malkin.
Okay, but Bryan Rust is already a better 5 on 5 player than Phil Kessel. So a better Bryan Rust is better than Bryan Rust, who is also better 5 on 5 than Phil Kessel.
Phil Kessel is also not nearly as good on the powerplay as you think he is.
I mean, he is if you include stuff outside of offense. Like I'd easily take Rust at ES over Kessel at ES, and it's not getting any closer as they get older. Rust had a horrible start to this year, and yet he's still only 8 ES points behind Kessel on the year (13 goals and 35 points for Kessel vs 14 goals and 27 points for Rust).
Whatever happens this year good or bad, this has to be the end of the trying to win a cup with this roster. Kessel has to go for cap and fit reasons. He can't drive/carry a line and is still a very good offensive winger. But I suspect the next 5 games will shed some light on what moves if any GMJR makes. Olli will need to go on LTIR if any significant moves are made since I can't see a Pearson or JJ being moved currently.
Kessel with a Crosby or Malkin is not worth as much as kessel or a kessel level player on the third line... teams only have so many legitimate defensive stalwarts and rarely enough to cover 70% of the icetime so you literally make them pick their poison, but even then the third line is seeing more defensive zone starts so having the speedy sniper on it is advantageous IF you have a defenseman or center who can get the puck to him in transition....
I think this team sorely has missed that Daley type of defenseman... and was hoping to find that in JJ... and it hasn’t worked... compounded with Shultz being out and its a glaring weakness
Again just getting a bryan rust type isn’t going to pull a defensive coverage apart like a motivated Kessel does...
Also im not sure anything this team does in the regular season should matter much cause they have played with little motivation during the past two years in it... basically only when they are in real danger of dropping out of the playoffs do they really try... they mostly all have a bad case of veteran regular season itis....
Then I think the PP is weighted far too lightly. There isn't a minor difference between Kessel and Zucker on the PP, it's night and day.
Kessel's been the most productive player on our PP. You can't just replace your best PP player and expect no significant dropoff if you throw Bjugstad or someone of that calibre in his place. That really undervalues what Kessel does out there.
We have draft picks, prospects, and a ton of other players who aren't living up to their contracts. I'd exhaust every possibility involving those before entertaining a deal where we move Kessel just to get Zucker.
Simply put, yes. I'm a fan of Zucker, but you're losing a lot of skill on the wing. You're getting more speed and a better all around game, but Zucker isn't going to make half the play's Kessel does. I want to put less offensive responsibility onto our centers, not more.
B) How does getting a RD for Kessel help our forward group?
Also, why is it when someone wants to keep one of the only 2 good skilled wingers we have, it's because we're "clinging to a great run he had two seasons ago" or "because of his PP prowess" ?? I want to keep Kessel because he's a highly skilled player who would be very hard to replace given his 6.8m cap hit. Not impossible, but very very hard.
What happened to him getting traded this summer?
That's more versatile, not a "better player". There's a pretty big difference between the two.
Based on what exactly?
Rust has ~695 ES minutes this season, of which he's played ~437 with Crosby or Malkin (mostly Crosby).
Kessel has ~705 ES minutes this season, of which he's played ~496 with Crosby or Malkin (mostly Malkin).
And despite Kessel's #1 linemate playing like trash at ES for his last 41 games, Kessel still has more ES points then Rust.
As for the PP, I guess that's why since coming to Pittsburgh (3.5 seasons ago), he's #2 in the league in PP points. But yeah, what a chump.
I also don't want to trade phil (now). getting him the right players should be our first option. but to answer your ?A) How does getting a "Kessel lite" improve the team over Kessel?
B) How does getting a RD for Kessel help our forward group?
I think he’s here for the current window. Once he’s traded or leaves via FA in a couple years....we’re gonna be re-tooling/re-building.I find myself split on Kessel because he is so highly productive still, but when his drop off comes, it's going to come in a quick hurry and we will be stuck with him. Luckily he doesn't have a ton of time left on his deal.
Then how comes Sid had one of his worst ES post-seasons in forever when Phil was on the 3rd? And how comes we haven't seen Sid/Geno's stats surge in seasons when Phil's mostly on the 3rd?
If individual quality on the PP is that important and Kessel is our best player, how comes Toronto had a league average PP in Kessel's three last years there while we had the 2nd best? A period in which Malkin paced to score 32 more PP points than Kessel? To me those numbers shout that system is more important. As long as talent remains, the system will continue to thrive.
A) In any case, the PP is maybe 20% of your play-off goals. ES is about 66%. So if ES is about 3 times more important, then I think its fair to say that the guy who's better at the 3 times more important thing is close to the guy who's a lot lot better at the less important thing (and still pretty darn good at ES).
B) We have 3 draft picks in the top 100 over the next 2 years. Our prospect pool is widely considered one of the weakest in the NHL. The guys not living up to their contracts have poor trade value. There's not a lot of trade possibilities there. There's a reason we're still staring at a weak defence halfway through the season.
Yohe was saying at the time this summer was a lot more likely.
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Pearson has been such a disappointment, my gosh.
Talk about a lose-lose trade for both teams.
A) there is a lot more to it than just phil.
B) if we are going for picks this isn't a good yr. to do it (not a deep draft) I think next yr. should be better.
I agree, but I didn’t feel like straight up saying that and getting attacked by the fan boys.LA atleast gets to let Hagelin walk in the summer. Plus they got rid of Pearson. Think they won and Pittsburgh just lost.
not so sure about that.....we could still get something for pearson if he doesn't improve. imoLA atleast gets to let Hagelin walk in the summer. Plus they got rid of Pearson. Think they won and Pittsburgh just lost.