BCJM's Thoughts: According to a twitter by Darren Dreger of TSN, Phil Kessel has been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a first and second round pick in 2010 and a first round pick in 2011. Dreger also reports that the Leafs have signed the former 5th overall pick to a five year, 27 million dollar deal. The deal is not official as of yet seeing as it still needs to be approved by the league.

I'm just glad this is all over. I would have liked to have seen a prospect headed our way too but you really can't complain about getting two firsts and a second for a guy who, in my opinion, is over rated. I'm not saying Kessel can't score but, without Savvy feeding him, I just don't see him putting up the points he did this past season.

---

Pezell's Thoughts: I would like to thank my manager, Arista records, my mom and dad, step-father, the rest of the crew at Something's Bruin...oh, I thought I was winning an award because I'm so god damn happy.

Look, I'm not going to pitter-patter around this, I am pretty glad that Kessel is gone. Don't get me wrong, Kessel is a good player who was able to put the puck in the back of the net 36 times, for one season.

Knowing the various hockey communities I frequent, people will be up in arms about "what happens to the 26 goals we now lost"? I say to them:

What about them?

In 2007-2008, Marco Sturm had 27 goals in 80 games. So what happens to the 9 goals that are missing? Sure, Sturm may not put up 27 goals, but Kessel may not put up 36. Did you forget a man by the name of Marc Savard? Savard, I believe, is the best set-up man in hockey, could probably account for 5-10 goals for Kessel. So your 36 could look like 31-26 goals.

Add in the fact you have a 1st and 2nd rounder in 2010, which may be a pretty good damn pick position wise and another 1st round pick in 2011; my question to you is:

What about it now?

Good trade for the Bruins (and we're not even talking about the 5 year $27M contract given to Kessel by Toronto...)