WWYDW – Trading For Phil Kessel (With a Twist!)

Phil Kessel is far and away the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best player. Also, he only has three points in his last ten games and must be traded. 

I mean, that’s not really the case. Yes, he’s not scoring at his usual point-per-game clip, but only a bunch of idiots would want to run him out of town because of his stat line.

For instance, I’m actually in the “Trade Kessel” camp, but I also love him. I don’t think that makes me an idiot, though I’m sure plenty of you would disagree. I just think that a complete teardown and rebuild would do this organization a lot of good, and also, a trade would do Phil Kessel a lot of good. He doesn’t deserve this.

But even more hilarious than some of the terrible reasons that Kessel should or shouldn’t be traded is that if he was in fact traded, he wouldn’t get the Leafs much in return. See, TSN’s Darren Dreger seems to think that Kessel’s recent play has negatively affected his trade value. You know, as if less than half-a-season of not great hockey from a perennial All-Star means that he’s no longer an All-Star. 

So where exactly does Phil Kessel’s trade value stand? 

Full stop. Before you answer that question, let’s throw in a twist.

It’s too easy to say propose a trade with other teams’ assets. We’re all bias and we all want to see the Leafs absolutely kill it if they do part ways with the best player the organization has had in quite a while. So instead, let’s use the Leafs’ own assets to set Phil Kessel’s value.

Would you trade a 1st round pick and William Nylander for Phil Kessel? Would you trade Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner in a package for Phil Kessel? Would you trade two 1sts and a 2nd? Ok, sorry about that last one.

Maybe the only way to truly gauge a player’s trade value is to put your own assets on the table? Maybe it works, maybe it won’t, but I’m guessing some of the comments are going to be magnificent.

Have at ’em.