Maple Leafs Improve Lineup With Kessel
September 20, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Boston Bruins, NHL, News, Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are shaping up to be a much better team this season and they’ve now beefed up their lineup by acquiring Phil Kessel from the Boston Bruins. I think it’s a pretty significant loss for the Bruins but they’ve got such a strong roster that I think they cannot afford to share the wealth.
image: TSN
Besides, like the Dany Heatley drama, Kessel wasn’t happy with the team and eagerly signed a five-year deal worth $27 million deal despite the fact that the Nashville Predators and the New York Rangers had expressed some interest.
Leafs GM Brian Burke said: “Bringing Phil Kessel aboard, it’s a statement to our players that we intend to be competitive right away, and I think he gives us a dimension that we need. This is a free agent that could have signed with other teams, he wanted to sign with us, and I think it’s an important pick up for us.”
What about that huge salary? Burke continued “it’s a very high price but it’s one we feel makes sense for us and I think what’s made it possible to expend those picks is two focuses: one is that he’s a young player, he’s not even 22 yet. And second, we think with some of the players we acquired without giving up picks like Tyler Bozak, (Robert) Slaney, (Christian) Hanson and (Jonas) Gustavsson, these are players that were they available on the draft would command a high price like that. We feel by stocking the cupboard we can take some of the cans off the shelf for the future.”
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