In today’s Toronto Sun, Steve Simmons wonders if the Maple Leafs are wise to roll the dice by acquiring a player like Phil Kessel. Simmons looks back at the prior additions of Owen Nolan and Jason Blake — players with reputation issues that joined Toronto to mixed results — and then explains about Kessel:
“Depending on who you ask — and no one would go on the record on this one — Kessel is a) immature; b) the most disliked player on the Bruins, even by training staff; c) painfully shy; d) a square peg who couldn’t fit into a round hole; e) a single engine in a sport where team means everything.”
He’s probably right on about half of the above-mentioned items. But when he states earlier in the piece that the Bruins “want nothing to do with” Kessel, you have to wonder if he’s paying attention. The NHL has a salary cap and the Bruins need Kessel to fit that salary cap without disrupting an entire team. Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli has said numerous times that he is prepared to match an offer sheet and even move a player to do it. This isn’t a case of the Bruins not valuing Kessel, it’s just that they don’t value him as much as he values himself.
Elsewhere around the division:
•The Bruins’ 3-2 preseason win over the Leafs featured Francois Beauchemin logging a ridiculous 26 minutes and goaltender Joey MacDonald, a former Bruin, making his early pitch to make the team.
•Ottawa has a ton of right wingers to pick from.
•Tyler Ennis has a tall task ahead of him to make Buffalo because he’s just 5-foot-9.
Goon, good point on Dupont. His hockey IQ has always been suspect, and he seems to revel in bashing players (see Juneau, Dafoe, Allison, etc., etc.) as opposed to sharing any real insight on the team or the league. Like the rest of the Globe, his column is fit for one thing: puppy training.
If the plan is to move Kessel, so be it, although I’d love to know Chiarelli’s plan to replace that goal production. If it’s a cap thing, I can live with that. What I can’t understand for the life of me, though, is why the Bruins are so “out front” about their desire to deal Kessel away. Letting other teams know you’re perfectly willing — maybe even desperate — to dump a player and/or his salary certainly diminishes any market leverage you might have had. All in all, I think it’s a bad move and being handled poorly.
Char as a Bruins fans I accepted a long time ago that KPD is a moron, this guy has been on a crusade to crucify Kessel this summer and would want nothing more than to run him out of town. Makes you wonder if he will do the same thing to Savard once Kessel is gone?
Guys like Dupont don’t like Kessel because he’s painfully shy and not a schmoozer, and because they don’t think he’s “tough.” Which is absurd, but unfortunately they campaign against him so relentlessly that the average fan comes to accept their words as those of the organization. The Bruins have never said a bad word about Kessel, but the impression is, sadly, that they have.
a) he’s 21, I don’t know many 21 year olds who are mature, especially athletes. the maturity they show is usually just in their game
b) its well documented that he is very good friends with Savard, Wheeler, and Krejci. So at least those three like him.
c) what does being shy have to do with playing hockey?
d) I get that this comes down to the team thing, but a good manager and coach takes what he has and compromises. A Kessel example: play the game at both ends of the ice and you get a chance to score a lot of goals with Marc Savard. Don’t and you sit out playoff games. or tweak the system to fit the personnel you have while still maintaining the overall structure and values.
e) that was redundant. Was Gretzky a bit of a single engine? yes. The season he scored 91, he openly admits that was all he cared about doing that year, score as much as humanly possible. I’m not comparing Kessel to Gretzky, just the concept. Look at a list of Hall of Famers. Sure most of them are good teammates, but also most of them were a bit aloof or not quite the same as the other players, that’s what made them great. And I’m also not insinuating that Kessel belongs in the Hall. Just that those points he made are pointless.
//This isn’t a case of the Bruins not valuing Kessel, it’s just that they don’t value him as much as he values himself.//
Perfectly said. That’s it, in a nutshell.