Comments on: Why 2 first round picks for Kessel makes sense…

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:58:14 +0000

I’ve heard the exact opposite Redonred. The 2010 draft is supposed to very deep.

By: Mr DeBakey

Mr DeBakey — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:22:57 +0000

“the Buins would have immediately matched it, then just as immediately traded him to Nashville”

Nope
If you match, the guy can’t be traded for a year

By: HockeyInsight.com - Serious Insight for Serious Hockey Fans

HockeyInsight.com - Serious Insight for Serious Hockey Fans — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:16:51 +0000

[...] deal, and suggest that the Maple Leafs made a poor move. Dave Johnson at HockeyAnalysis.com makes sense of this deal. Regardless of your opinion, now that Burke has taken off one decision from his Trade [...]

By: The Meatriarchy

The Meatriarchy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:46:38 +0000

allude
Verb
[-luding, -luded] allude to to refer indirectly to [Latin alludere]
USAGE: Avoid confusion with elude.

By: Redonred

Redonred — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:15:21 +0000

2005 draft seems like it was pretty deep. The next two drafts are supposed to be very weak. The possibility of getting a 30-40 and maybe one day 50 goal scorer at a mid level pick in the first round is very slim.
-Rebuilt and highly touted defense.
-Last years 10th place scoring team that replaced Moore and Antropov with Phil Kessel.
-The projected #3 goalie posted a .901 save percentage in 49 games with the Islanders last year.
The playoffs look pretty damn close.

By: VegasVic

VegasVic — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:13:16 +0000

We could go back and forth on this David. The 2005 draft saw Devin Setoguchi, Anze Kopitar, Marc Staal, (and Luc Bourdon), all selected between 8-12. Your point that Toronto is swapping a unknown commodity in draft picks for a proven one, (albeit after one solid season), has it’s merits and obviously we wont know who comes out with the best of this deal for a few years. Hopefully it’s a win/win for both parties. No matter what Brian Burke accomplished at least one thing. He has us all talking about Toronto and excited to see how this new version of the Leafs perform.

By: David Johnson

David Johnson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:00:58 +0000

Ok, so over a 7 year span and 35 picks you have two players that quite probably will have better careers than Kessel (we don’t know what his final upside will be yet) in Hossa and Phaneuf and maybe another in Carter (he’s only had one great season in four so far in his career) and then a few other pretty good players in Tanguay, Hamhuis, etc.

But hey, why not go back further.

1996: Johnathan Aitken, Ruslan Salei, Lance Ward, Dan Focht, Josh Holden
1995: Terry Ryan, Kyle McLaren, Radek Dvorak, Jarome Iginla, Teemu Riihijarvi
1994: Jason Wiemer, Brett Lindros, Nolan Baumgartner, Jeff Friesen, Wade Belak
1993: Niklas Sundstrom, Todd Harvey, Jocelyn Thibault, Brendan Witt, Kenny Johnsson
1992: Brandon Convery, Robert Petrovicky, Andrei Nazarov, David Cooper, Sergei Krivokrasov

That is 5 more years and 25 more draft picks and the only player that you would absolutely regret having given up would be Jarome Iginla. So where does that leave us? 60 draft picks over a dozen drafts and maybe 4 or 5 guys you would absolutely regret to have given up? So what, that works out to about a 15% chance of absolutely regretting the trade even if we assume a near worse case scenario for the Leafs performance? If Kessel becomes a perennial 30-40 goal scorer, I’ll take my chances.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:47:21 +0000

Thank you for adding some balance to that 8-12 argument , Vegas Vic. When you consider that Boston has 5 picks in the first 2 rounds of the 2010 draft (Toronto’s 1/2, Boston’s 1/2, and Tampa Bay’s 2), they could also conceivably package picks to move up into the top 5 lottery slots. Or, they could trade some of those picks for a proven commodity, once they have a better handle on future cap numbers.

I’m a Bruins fan, and I’m happy that Chiarelli stuck to his guns, and didn’t disrupt the roster further. We would have probably had to move guys like Ference & Kobasew, and sent Rask down to the minors to start the season. Signing Kessel at 5.4M also would have set a terrible spending precedent, given that the cap is going down and we’ll have players like Savvy, Lucic, Wheeler, Ference, Rask, Stuart, and Morris becoming FA’s at season’s end. Lot’s more players will be due contracts the season after that. Only Wideman, Thomas, and Krejci are under contract through 2011-12. Given the circumstances, this was a very good deal for Boston.

By: VegasVic

VegasVic — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:23:34 +0000

Classic example of data mining to support your belief. Let’s consider the bookend years to your example above and then reassess.

1997
#8 Sergei Samsonov
#9 Nick Boynton
#10 Brad Ference
#11 Jason Ward
#12 Marian Hossa

2003
#8 Braydon Coburn
#9 Dion Phaneuf
#10 Andrei Kostitsyn
#11 Jeff Carter
#12 Hugh Jessiman

By: Enid

Enid — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:01:02 +0000

Word on the street is that if the leafs had signed Kessel to an offersheet, the Buins would have immediately matched it, then just as immediately traded him to Nashville, where they wold have got more in return from the Leafs and he would have been out of their division.

However Kessel wanted to play for the Leafs. He wouldn’t have signed an offer sheet with Nashville and they wouldn’t have traded for him if they didn’t know that he was going to sign with them.

It was a rough situation for all involved. Burke bt the bullet and made it happen which was a gamble, but he got a good young play, which diminishes the risk.