Veteran Toronto hockey writer Damien Cox called, yesterday, for the trading of the Maple Leafs' top scoring threat, Phil Kessel and for the club to rebuild.
He was right to do so.
The betting here is that new GM Dave Nonis won’t do what Floyd Smith did, or what Cliff Fletcher did, or what Pat Quinn did, or what John Ferguson Jr. did, or what Brian Burke did. There will be no trading away the first-rounder in an attempt to make the present more palatable. The Leafs seemed to have learned — finally — that blue-chip youngsters are not to be rushed.
Cox's core argument revolved around the intractable issue of Kessel's contract, which expires at the end of the 2014 NHL season.
When former Toronto General Manager Brian Burke acquired Kessel in a trade with Boston in 2009, the move was—and still is—controversial, but the result was at least a defensible one. In Kessel, the Leafs had acquired a 23-year-old gifted scorer, whose contract they controlled for the next five years at a reasonable cost. The theory went that Burke, who Toronto fans were thrilled with at the time, would surely have turned the club i ...
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Article written by Jeff Hull
Maple Leafs’ Rebuild Must Begin with Phil Kessel’s Departure
January 29th, 2013 by Jeff Hull Leave a reply »
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