Five Reasons Phil Kessel Is A Perfect Fit For The Toronto Maple Leafs

Calendar September 19, 2009 | Posted by Scott Lewis

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Brian Burke finally added some offense to go along with all that truculence, belligerence, and those other couple of college words he likes to toss around.  Phil Kessel might not be the type of player that can turn the Maple Leafs’ fortunes around on his own, but he brings some youthful scoring ability to a team in need of goals.  Perfect he is not, but here’s five reasons why Phil Kessel will fit just fine in the bigger picture for Toronto:

1. Kessel has a history of not being very well liked by his teammates.  Rumours and old wives’ tales follow him back as far as his time with the U.S. National Under-18 Team.  That’s not going to matter a lick in Toronto, as there’s no way that he could be liked less than Jason Blake.

2. Brian Burke appeared to put the days of “draft schmaft” behind this franchise upon his arrival when he implemented his own “forwards bore-wards” scheme by signing every free-agent defenseman in the league.  Now he’s managed to trade away two first-round picks and a second-round pick for Kessel, thus bringing back the “draft schmaft” while addressing the holes up front.  This team could very well return to the glory years of losing in the Conference Finals by 2012.

3. Even if Kessel falls short of duplicating his impressive 2008-09 numbers, he can point to the fact that everyone scores less when they come to Toronto.

4. Regardless of how good those three draft picks turn out to be, they’ll never be as good as Scott Niedermayer or Roberto Luongo.

5. Kessel’s mere six hits in 70 games last year would still put him ahead of Jiri Tlusty who registered five in 14 games.

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Category Categories: NHL Transactions | Tag Tags: , , , , | Comments View Comments

  • Legger

    I think the playoffs are far-fetched for this team. I think I can see Burke's thinking though, it ain't all going to happen this year. With the blueline sured up, and one piece (Kessel) up front, maybe next year they fill up the forward ranks with UFA's. Really, they are still pretty puss up front. I am not a Leafs fan right up front, but I will watch them this year.

  • jeremy clayton

    “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
    - Winston Churchill

    here's five more reasons:

    1: the Leafs can use any help they can get.
    2: Kessel is an American - the only other people in the world who think they're the 'center of the universe'.
    3: he's injury prone.
    4: he'll immediately demand a 10 million dollar salary ... and the Leafs will pay him.
    5: He doesn't know about the Toronto curse. Yet.

    after seeing Burke stocking up on goons we're wondering if he's looking to become Freddy Shero north? Fighting is a good smoke screen for covering up a lot of crap ... except for all those power plays.

  • SL

    Grabovski is really good at getting the puck to the opposition's blue line, but it ends there. You never know, Kessel could mesh well with one of the kids... I still think it's long shot for this team to make the playoffs.

  • dl

    I like how none of those reasons are particularly good - they just fit. And do so perfectly. I guess that's why I too am equally relieved and skeptical to a level befitting of any real Leafs 'fan.' We have again acquired a much-coveted and uno-dimensional yank to gank up cap room, but at least he's a guy who does 'x' and does it well. Hopefully, we have someone who can step up and replicate Marc Savard's 'x.'

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