Kessel is a top 5 right winger, only getting better every season and a borderline superstar, meanwhile knight will at best be a third liner in the nhl if he ever makes it, hamilton has a ways to go to be a legitimate top 4 dman and Serguin is well, shipped off to Dallas, that tells you something right there about the superstar he was supposed to be and what boston thinks about that scenario.
The trade is more than fair for the Leafs with many in the know saying the Leafs actually came out on top now that Kessel has took his all around game to the next level under Carlyle.
Thank You Boston!
Glad you're happy....but now let's check the FACTS:
Since the trade, Boston has one Cup and one other Final appearance and has always made the playoffs. The leafs, on the other hand, have only MADE the playoffs once (in a SHORTENED season, of course), where they lost...to the BRUINS...in the first round (of course!) with the most EPIC COLLAPSE in the history of game sevens. Now, although Seguin has left the B's, they still have benefits from the other players in the trade with toronto and from what they got from Dallas. Loui Erikson, for example, is a very good player (not lucky about the injury, but that's hockey).
As for Kessel versus Seguin, let's look at the FACTS:
This season Seguin has played 42 games. He has 21 goals, 20 assists, 41 points. Kessel has played 4 MORE games (46) and has the SAME number of goals (21),one LESS assist (19), one LESS point (40).
Seguin is plus 6 on the season, Kessel is minus 3. Seguin has a faceoff percentage of 40.6%, Kessel 15.4%.
Seguin is almost 5 years younger than Kessel.
Seguin has a cap hit of $5.75 million (6 years for $34.5 million). Kessel has a much bigger cap hit of $8 million per year for a longer period of time (8 years for $64 million) even though as we have seen he is 5 years older and his stats are worse in EVERY department.
This is Seguin's 4th year in the league. So far he has never missed the playoffs. He has played in 42 career playoff games and has 1 Cup win and 1 other Final appearance. This is Kessel's EIGHTH year in the league and he has been to the playoffs only 3 times (twice with the Bruins and only once - for 7 games, following the shortened season) with the leafs. He has never won a Cup and never made it to the Final. He has played in a total of 22 career playoff games - meaning that in four MORE seasons than Seguin, Kessel has played in 20 LESS playoff games - OR, you could say that he has played TWICE as long as Seguin but has only played HALF as many playoff games!
In EVERY measurable stat, Seguin VASTLY outperforms Phil. Oh, one more thing: Seguin has been quoted as saying that he wants to model his game after the great all-around player Patrice Bergeron, while Kessel has no ambition to do ANYTHING except score goals...and as we've seen above, Seguin is TIED with Phil in goals.
No comparison! But GLAD you're happy with the Kessel deal! Have some more Koolaid.