Reaction in Toronto to the Kessel trade, reaction in Vancouver and Montreal to the Kassian deal, plus updates on the Oilers, Flames, Jets and Senators.
In the wake of Phil Kessel’s trade to Pittsburgh, Toronto pundits assess his tenure with the Leafs.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL/TORONTO STAR/TORONTO SUN: James Mirtle, Bruce Arthur and Steve Simmons offer up their thoughts on the Maple Leafs shipping talented, much-maligned winger Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mirtle and Arthur offered balanced opinions. They cited Kessel’s faults and strengths plus his role with the Leafs. They pointed out he deserved his share of the blame for the club’s struggles but wasn’t the sole reason for their decline, and how the trade is seen by the Leafs front office as essential to their rebuild. Simmons was more scathing, calling Kessel an infection the Leafs had to move.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I daresay many Leafs fans share Simmons caustic take, but on the whole, I believe Kessel’s tenure with the Leafs was a complicated one. The 27-year-old scorer certainly deserved his fair share of criticism, but he didn’t deserve to be made the scapegoat for the Leafs woes.
Kessel was the Leafs leading scorer in each of his six seasons with the team. Three times, he was among the league’s top-ten scorers. He accomplished this without a top-line center or any significant scoring support. In his sole playoff series with the Leafs, Kessel silenced his critics (at least for that year) with a strong performance.
The problem was the Leafs tried to turn him into a franchise player. As talented as Kessel is, he lacks the personality for that role. He should thrive in Pittsburgh skating alongside a true franchise player like Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, where he won’t have to answer for the team’s struggles.
THE PROVINCE/MONTREAL GAZETTE: Tony Gallagher ripped Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning for giving up on Zach Kassian. Pat Hickey notes the 24-year-old winger’s flaws, noting the Canadiens hope he’ll become the power forward they’ve been missing.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: If talk radio and Twitter are anything to go by, many Canucks fans share Gallagher’s assessment of the Kassian trade. Overlooked in the critique is the fact Kassian, for all his promise, failed to reach expectations under three coaches in Vancouver, two of whom were former Adams Trophy winners.
Sure, it’s possible Kassian could finally blossom into a power forward with the Habs, but it’s also likely he could flounder like he did with the Canucks. Right now, it’s a gamble on the Habs part. An affordable one, as Kassian only has a year at a cap hit of $1.75 million left on his contract, but still a gamble.
EDMONTON SUN: The Oilers’ free-agent additions of defenseman Andrej Sekera and center Mark Letestu adds to the perception they’re a club moving fast in the right direction.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Since April, the Oilers hired Peter Chiarelli as GM, Todd McLellan as head coach, cleaned out their scouting department, drafted Connor McDavid first overall and brought in a top-two defenseman and a skilled depth center via free agency. It’s still not a certainty the Oilers will reach the 2016 playoffs, but they should make significant strides toward contention.
CALGARY SUN: The Flames are now carrying 17 forwards, meaning they’ll have to jettison a couple of players before the 2015-16 season opens.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: While the Jets lost winger Michael Frolik to free agency, Alexander Burmistrov has returned from the KHL, agreeing to a two-year contract.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators made only minor free-agent signings on July 1, inking Eric O’Dell, Zack Stortini and Mike Kostka.
Jim Benning has been in place for a little over a year in Vancouver. His grade to date is an F. Choose fail, or if you prefer F–k up. Vancouver appears to be the 2nd worst team in the Western Conference now on paper & as the reality sets in for fans again next season they will disappear in droves.
I have owned season tickets to the Canucks for over 30 years & after the debacle that was Torts, the 2nd half of that season & last year, I can barely give these tickets away when unable to attend except for the teams with superstar players or storied histories with fans all over the country, Montreal, Boston Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, etc & selling my unused tickets over the last 2 years has been the worst return in 25 years.
After Desjardin’s seriously questionable & flawed coaching decisions doomed the Canucks against Calgary in the 1st round, fans in Vancouver aren’t happy & the Canucks are going to feel the sting both in regular season attendance & lost revenue when they miss next seasons playoffs.
I haven’t seen fan apathy this bad since we 1st moved to what was GM Place. Fans in Vancouver aren’t happy & you will see that anger next season in both unpaid attendance but more significantly paid tickets going unused, so no parking, food or alcohol sales.
Were heading down a slippery slope to mediocrity & Benning’s personal decisions, UFA signings & trades have been brutal. It’s to early to judge his draft record but the way he has shipped out picks it isn’t setting that up to be very successful as well.
I like the Vancouver Canucks. They are essentially my home team, I live on Vancouver Island but a serious mess is shaping up in Vancouver. I was a 34 year Bruins fan until Hamilton was moved for a bag of pucks. The 3rd & final straw in the 3 brutal trades where Boston didn’t market players for the best possible return. Thornton, Seguin & now Hamilton.
Interesting, Striker. I’m a Habs fan and am not thrilled about the Kassian trade from Montreal’s side. I think Prust is a great locker room guy, sticks up for his teammates, scores a few goals now and then. I think Kassian will end up with only unrealized potential and about 30 bonehead penalties a year.
(Funnily enough, I also live on Vancouver Island! And get to see a fair bit of the Canucks, who I like. But I don’t care for Kassian as a player at all.)
Some people are are out there bewailing the team and demanding a rebuild to ship out the vets and bring in the young guys, but when that actually starts to happen and a couple of their favourite players get traded, they’re all up in arms and crying bloody murder.
You need to decide what it is you want and accept the changes and difficulties that come with it. Nobody said this would be easy or painless.
Beaujolais, anyone? A mighty fine whine. Not sure if we’re dealing with a fan here or a scalper.
i too am a longtime fan and have attended games going back to the ’70’s, through the birth of towel power and saw current executives Linden, Smyl & Benning as well as scouts Delorme & Gradin during their glory days as players for the Canucks. having watched great teams stumble stumble and fade the one thing i can say with absolute certainty is it’s always painful but in the end necessary to start replacing fan favourites. it’s a delicate balance when moving forward as you’re never going to satisfy everyone. when the current management took over they told the core of the team (who were convinced they could still win) that they would give them one last chance as a group and as promised they did that, unfortunately they fell short so now they have to start making changes.
Benning’s moves haven’t been popular as the players involved have been here for awhile and made themselves a part of the community. Bieksa may have lost a step but none of the quick wit that makes him an entertaining interview, the Ducks are getting a quality player and a team guy who every team in the league would’ve loved to have in his prime. he didn’t want to go but didn’t handcuff the team with impossible demands that lessened the return for him. i’ve no doubt that one day his name will be in the Ring of Honor at Rogers Arena and i wish him well going forward. i can’t say the same for a former teammate who joined the Ducks last year, as much as Bieksa did things honorably this person did everything the opposite way and will be a villain in Vancouver til the day he dies.
Kassian was always a big of an enigma as a player of considerable talent and size, quick to defend a teammate but just never seemed to put it all together at the same time. if Therrien can harness his raw talent and get him to play with discipline then he’ll have done what 3 different Canuck coaches couldn’t and that’s likely why the return for him seemed slight (nothing against Prust who by all accounts is a quality guy).
the one move that Benning made that i take issue with is trading Lack for such a minimal return. Eddie was a fan favorite because he became a part of the community and when you consider that he replaced 2 very popular goalies it wasn’t easy. Lack worked hard to get better and very well could’ve been the best of the 3 goalies the Canucks had, this is why his being moved was such a bitter pill for the fans to swallow.
Benning was brought in as a GM who loved to scout and find talent but if he has a fault it’s that he’s too loyal to players who he previously scouted and seems to go back to them instead of moving in a new direction. Miller has been good but his 3 year $6 million contract put the Canucks in a Cap crunch, it would’ve been better to sign him to a 2 year deal much like Hiller in Calgary. Vey has been underwhelming to this point in his career and despite having almost twice the amount of games didn’t get more goals than Kassian even though he had considerably more powerplay time, we’ll see if he was worth the 2nd round pick given up to acquire him. Baertschi cost Vancouver a 2nd round pick in a very deep draft and possibly the chance to move up in the draft and land another core player, he has to prove he was worth that gamble. Luca Sbisa is a work in progress but the contract he was given will make him tough to move should he fall short. Weber scored 11 goals but his defensive lapses in the playoffs cost the Canucks dearly, current management saw fit to not only give him another year but also almost doubled his salary. i’m not sure how aggressively a deal for Lucic was pursued but in my opinion it would’ve been a disaster and i hope that Benning doesn’t use the Cap room created to sign him next year.