Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Bruins and Kessel Aren't Even Close
Well Bruins fans, you may never see this again...

I want to give some love to the guys over at Stanley Cup of Chowder. They do a fantastic job and for those who don't know about them, I would suggest checking them out.

While I was going through my Bruins Blogosphere, like I do every morning, there was something on Stanley Cup of Chowder that caught my eye.

Apparently the Bruins and RFA Phil Kessel aren't even close to a deal:

The Bruins and F Phil Kessel appear to be far apart on a contract. Coming off an entry-level salary of $850,000, Kessel wants a huge raise to $5 million per season. It appears GM Peter Chiarelli wants Kessel to accept a similiar deal C David Krejci inked earlier this week -- $11.25 million over three years. If Kessel won't budge, he could be moved ...

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Now, I've made my thoughts pretty well known on the re-signing of Phil Kessel. My stance is still pretty much the same.

I don't see the reasoning behind signing Kessel for anything more than what David Krejci got. Sure, Kessel score 30+ goals, but so did Patrice Bergeron and his contract may be the biggest problem on the roster. You never know what happens with hockey players season after season. Three years ago Bergeron was being touted as one of the best in the East, but now fans what him out of town. You can't sign players to high contracts anymore because of a declining salary cap.

One of my good friends put it this way yesterday. "I would rather have two decent to good players at $2.5M then 1 Phil Kessel at $5 M."

I couldn't agree more my friend, I couldn't agree more.
3 Comments:
Blogger Tom said...
Kessel is simply not worth $5m yet. Maybe if it were a very long term deal he would eventually justify that salary, but it would take a lot of defensive improvement and a demonstrated ability to play a full season without contracting mono or cancer or typhoid or whatever. Until then he is a $4-4.5m type of player, no matter what he can do with the puck.

Blogger Pezell said...
I totally agree. My brother said it best:

"I dont see losing Kessel as a real bad thing..Kids got no grit, takes him 5 years to score 30 goals..in a contract year..hmmmm..u take away savard he woulda had 25 goals not 35"

Blogger BCJM76 said...
Now would be the absolute best time to move Kessel. He's coming off a career year and would command a high price in return.

I never really saw the hype behind "Phil the thrill." He has one move and that is to try to use his speed and take it around the defender on the outside. Well unfortunately for Kessel, by the end of the season a lot of teams had that figured out and we saw his goal production drop.

I say get rid of him and move on. It sucks but this is the new NHL. Kessel is not a $5 million/season player.

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