The Phil Kessel saga finally ended yesterday, not so much with a bang as with a whimper. Performing an abrupt about-face from his recently stated position that the colorful winger would remain a Penguin, general manager Jim Rutherford dealt “Phil the Thrill” to Arizona for forward Alex Galchenyuk.
Fleshing out the deal, the Pens also sent minor-league defensemen Dane Birks and a fourth-round pick in the 2020 Entry Draft to the Coyotes while receiving puck-moving defense prospect Pierre-Olivier Joseph, a former first-round pick.
The parting for the most part seemed amiable.
“I had a great time there (Pittsburgh),” Kessel said. “The city and the fans were great to me. All the guys, I’m going to miss them. They’re great guys and a great group.”
Said Rutherford: “I can’t say enough good things about him, and I like him personally, but it was just time to make a change with him.”
The trade represents a homecoming of sorts for Kessel, who’ll be reunited with former Pens assistant and current Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet. The two enjoyed a good working relationship in the ‘Burgh, prompting Kessel to comment that Tocchet was “the best coach I ever played for.” It’ll be interesting to see how things work out over time, especially now that Tocchet is the head man.
The return for the six-time 30-goal man was comparatively light. However, given Kessel’s restrictive movement clause and the fact that Rutherford all-but-announced he was going to trade the fan favorite shortly after the Pens’ season ended no doubt limited JR’s options and made it difficult to secure equal value.
Still, Rutherford seemed pleased with his latest trade and newest acquisition.
“Changing the mix of our team was important at this point,” said the Hall-of-Fame GM. “I talked about our team being content with our success over the last few years, trying to bring new people in to be excited to be here. I talked to Alex just within the last 15 minutes. His excitement was just coming through the phone. He was very excited to be coming here.”
In many ways Galchenyuk is a lot like Kessel…talented and enigmatic…capable of breathing life into his team at one end of the ice and snuffing it out at the other (a minus-53 over his seven-year NHL career). Although not in No. 81’s class as a scorer, Galchenyuk does possess some pedigree, twice topping the 50-point plateau and twice reaching the 20-goal mark, including a career-best 30 tallies with Montreal in 2015-16. At 25 years of age…six years younger than Kessel…the speedy former third overall pick should just be entering his prime.
Here’s how The Hockey News describes him:
Assets: Has outstanding vision and creativity, and is adept at both playmaking and also scoring goals himself. Also owns pretty good size. Can make a major offensive impact in the NHL. Flaws: Has some consistency issues that he must overcome to maximize output. Must also prove his durability over time, and he needs more work without the puck (and on face-offs). Career Potential: Talented playmaker with upside.
Again, sounds a lot like the guy he’s replacing.
Although listed as a center, Galchenyuk can play left wing. Good thing, because his career faceoff numbers (45.5 percent) aren’t good. Possession-wise, he’s fair-to-middling (50.2 career Corsi). Don’t let the name fool you, he isn’t the long-awaited Russian-born winger for Malkin. He’s a Milwaukee native.
Production-wise, nearly half of the newcomer’s goals over the past two seasons (18 of 38) have come on the power play. So don’t expect an even-strength dynamo, especially given his defensive lapses.
Speaking of the power play, the black and gold will definitely miss Kessel’s playmaking, shot and creative flair. The Pens finished third, first and fifth respectively in power-play percentage over his final three seasons in the ‘Burgh. It’s wishful thinking to hope Galchenyuk will be as effective.
And whatever issues Kessel had with Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff, productivity most assuredly wasn’t one of ‘em. He tallied 110 goals and 303 points during his four-season stay in the Steel City. It’s doubtful the Pens would’ve won back-to-back Stanley Cups without him.
Again, Galchenyuk will have his work cut out for him.
The trade does clear some cap space for the Pens and provides some flexibility on the eve of the free-agent period. Galchenyuk’s in the final season of a three-year deal that pays him $4.9 million annually. Kessel has three years remaining on a deal that pays him $8 million annually, including the $6.8 million portion the Pens ponied up.
Hey Rick,
Love the trade. Kessel will probably play on 5-7 more teams before he is done. He is one of those guys that can’t handle being a good player. He knows what needs to be done better than anyone and won’t listen.
If you follow football, two of the perennial winners in a salary cap league, the Steelers and the Patriots it’s the coaches way of the highway. You get rid of bad apples to save the bushel. Kessel’s head got bigger than his belly. Adios
Pens just picked up a big hitting penalty killer from the Jets, Brandon Tanev. Guessing Cullen is done. 6 years 21mil seems like way over paying.
Possibly Rust is going away also.
Hey Rick,
If you haven’t read Ryan Wilson’s (Hockey Buzz) take on this trade, you should.
He obviously took his time writing it, unlike what I did below.
Hey Rick,
Good write up.
I was in the process of writing something myself but will refrain. I am going to be very, very angry if Letang does not join Kessel in this blood purge. The Penguins will no longer have the fire power to counterbalance Letangs defensive liabilities. To put it bluntly Letang stinks defensively and Galchenyuck is at least 2 maybe 3 standard deviations below Kessel.
Right now I want both JR and Sullivan fired immediately. Rutherford whined and cried about not getting enough in return from Montreal for the pathetic excuse of a defensman while parting with Kessel for far less.
Over the last 3 seasons Kessel is 11th in the league in scoring, only 1 point below the great ape Ovechkin. (244–245). He is also tied for 7th in the league in WG, only 5 WGs out of No.1. Among players with at least 82 GP, he is 8th in Points/60min.
In return we got a player who ranks 123rd in the league in points over the last 3 seasons with only 136 points or roughly 56% of the points Kessel put up. Defensively Kessel may have been a -20 over those 3 seasons but Galchenyuk was a -55 over that same span.
As for Pierre-Olivier Joseph, he was a 1st round pick and 6′-2″ tall but he is listed as 163lbs. That is ridiculously skinny. He will need several more years of trying to put some muscle on to be able to be effective in the NHL.
In terms of return, granted the team got more than they did when they traded Jagr. Galchenyuk, by himself, is better than Beeck, Sivek, and Lupaschuk but Jagr wanted to leave. Kessel would have been quite content staying in the ‘burgh.
Unfortunately Captain Bly aka Sullivan, that pompous, pathetic excuse of a doorman, good only for opening and closing doors for line changes, can’t get along with any one and the either spineless or dementia ridden JR kowtowed the Martninique Popinjay.
The teams only hope our Penguins have to return to at least the Conference Finals is Letang also getting traded and Captain Bly getting fired. Otherwise we Pens fans will be plunged into a 2nd dark ages with Luminary players like Chris and Peter Farraro and used up Falloons, Richers, and Leachs populating our roster.
I guess the best news so far this off season was Donatelli moving on and the team replacing him with Mike Velucci. Velucci taking over in WBS could be a not so veiled move to put pressure on Captain Bly. I can’t imagine Velucci would take lateral move from the Charlotte Checkers to WBS after winning the Calder Cup there unless he was promised an upward movement in time.
Unfortunately, even if JR some how finds the intestinal fortitude to term his little lord Fontleroy midway through the season as the Penguins MO seems to be, the termination will have been 2 1/2 years too late.
Hi Rick,
Personally I think it’s an outstanding trade given the situations that the Pens are in.Alex could develop into a 40 goal score playing alongside a Malkin or a Crosby. I remember him from Montreal when he first broke in and this guy has a high threshold for talent.He just needs to be more consistent and pay a little more attention to his defense side of his game. He has the offensive tools already. Fortunately for us in most cases you can teach defense, but it’s very hard to teach offense if you don’t have the talent. Secondly, we add a young d man with upside as well. I’ve seen him play in the QHL for Charlottetown. He’s no Kris Letang, but he’s 20 years old and His career as a number three /four defense man should be possible.
Moving forward, if I were JR and the Penguins I would go after Anders Lee from the Islanders, which people say he will sign for 5 million??? .Then dump Hornqvist as his contract is about the same money. Now I have two new big skilled wingers for Geno.
Maybe unload Brian Rust and his $3 million plus contract and secure a free agent defense man.
Your thoughts.
Jim
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Sorry Jim,
I hope you are right and I am wrong but I have to disagree with you here. Galchenyuk may not get more than 50 points here in the ‘burgh and what is worse I can see his +/- plummet even lower than even his -31 he turned in 2 seasons ago in Montreal, on this structurally pathetic defense.
As I wrote elsewhere Jim, unless Letang is also dumped I fear this trade will be JRs worst trade. Perhaps the 3rd worst trade the team has ever made, only behind the Naslund and Jagr trades.
I would agree with you in that dumping Hornqvist’s contract would be a plus but he has a full NTC, so he is going nowhere unless he wants to go.
AS for Joseph, He may be a puck moving D man, but he is listed as only 163lbs. At that wgt it will be a long, long time before he can step up to the NHL if ever. He really is a child still physically and will get destroyed playing against the men in the NHL.
Now with Kessel gone, and the looming expansion draft, I think the team would be better off holding on to Rust. Rust would be a good candidate to hide younger prospects behind. His speed and heart would look to be a solid asset on an expansion team.
I don’t care what anyone here says……I love it, goodbye Phat Phil,
I didn’t like the trade when we got him, and again I know what he brought offensively. It was the way he played the game, not his numbers or stats, I teach my boys and coach my players to play the game hard every practice, every shift.
And he doesn’t play that way/
Sure his goals and assists will be hard to replace. HIs attitude and defensive effort are terrible
As far as the what we got in return..I like it, little more cap room. We got younger and Alex will be a good fit for Geno, he speaks Russian. His defense can’t any worse the Phil!
Alex is also a UFA next summer, so if it doesn’t work out….he gone.
The d-man Joesph, could be a big part of our future, a first rounder that has
great skating and puck handling skills and good size.
Hopefully this changes some of the crap from the locker room, I heard Phil like to go to casinos.
In closing…I am a very happy Pen’s fan today!!
Agree – i like the trade.
If Galchenyuk can get 41pts with the Coyotes he could easily expand that
number to 60 or 65 playing with Malkin and Crosby. I like the fact he’s only
25 and we also grabbed a previous 1st round pick in Joseph (a puck moving
defenseman).
I’m also in agreement with Pen’s4ever – your only locked into Alex for one
year – if it doesn’t work out you don’t re-sign him.
I’m hoping JR has a couple of more moves up his sleeve. I wouldn’t be
disappointed if he traded Simon or Rust to add a few finishing touches.
Sorry I can’t agree with you here Pen’s4ever.
Everyone is tradable to me, so the thought of trading Kessel isn’t my problem. However, Galchenyuk is far below Kessel in talent. The only good point about Galchenyuk is as you noted, he only has 1 year left on his contract.
Kessel rarely played with Crosby or Malkin so his roughly point per game average was due to his skill, I don’t see Galchenyuk netting more than 50 points. What is worse is yes, he will be worse defensively than Kessel. He played on more defensively sound teams than Pittsburgh but had worse +/- numbers.
The player that needed to go was Letang. Letang is the biggest millstone to this team, player-wise.
Sullivan is the person most expendable within the organization.
I agree about Letang being traded, but the big guy # 66 stated he and Malkin won’t be traded. So we are stuck with him!!
So next summer, JR won’t be able to resign Justin and Matt also needs a new contract!!
I hate to say this but I think our Cup window is almost if not already closed.
Agreed Pen’s4ever,
If the Cup window is still opened (and that is a big if) it is barely opened, a crack at best. Each of the last 2 seasons I have advocated being a seller at the trade dead-line but neither management nor the fans have wanted to acknowledge what the rest of the world sees, a shell of a team.
Instead of investing in draft picks and prospects for 3/4th line, we have been signing marginal aging veterans to long and expensive contracts, throwing away the future on a pipe dream.
Worse, trading away 1/2 the team because the coach plays favoritism and and can’t get along with his players.