The Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Jim Rutherford are searching for a top-six winger and Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting the club has some interest in acquiring Toronto Maple Leafs winger Phil Kessel.
Perhaps because there are so few top-six wingers in play now, the Penguins are believed to have at least a kick-the-tires level of interest in Toronto’s Phil Kessel.
Kessel, 27, is one of the NHL’s top goal-scorers — he has 247 in 668 games with the Maple Leafs and Boston — but comes with an $8 million salary-cap hit on a contract that runs through the 2021-22 season.
As Molinari notes, it would be difficult for the Penguins to fit in Kessel’s contract since the club is already locked into a handful of lengthy deals. The club would assuredly need the Leafs to retain salary, should they acquire his services. However, if they could manage to swing a deal, it would give Pittsburgh a gaudy offense.
Who could the Penguins offer? Their prospect core isn’t that deep. The club has already stated their intentions to go young on defense, so it would be strange to see them deal Brian Domoulin or Olli Maatta in a Kessel deal. The club also doesn’t have the luxury of a first-round pick after dealing their 2015 pick to the Edmonton Oilers for David Perron.
If I’m the Maple Leafs, my conversation with the Penguins starts with 2014 first-round pick Kasperi Kapanen – although it’s going to cost much more than that for Kessel’s services. It would be very difficult for Pittsburgh to put together a good package without hampering their already weak prospect core. Jim Rutherford is Jim Rutherford, so that’s not entirely outside of the realm of possibility.
