Should the Rangers make a play for Kessel?
With the news that Derik Morris has signed in Boston it is becoming readily apparent that Phil Kessel might not be in the Bruins plans. The 21 year old center—picked 5th overall in 2006—had an amazing season last year scoring 36 goals and adding 24 assists for 60 points in 70 games. Oh he also did this with mono through the middle part of the year.
So with the Morris signing and the Ward trade I calculated the Bruins cap on capgeek—view what I did here—and found that the Bruins were actually over the cap right now. But since I don’t know the Bruins very well I could be wrong about their exact cap. But it is safe to say that they are very close, if not over, the ceiling. With this in mind the question has to be asked: should the Rangers make a play for Phil Kessel?
To me a guy who is 21 and scored nearly 40 goals should be a no-brainer to re-sign. But if the Bruins let Kessel walk, which it appears they are doing, then should the Rangers make a move. Now before we start thinking about contracts let’s start from the beginning. Phil Kessel is a RFA which means that if he is signed to an offer sheet that the Bruins fail to match then the Bruins get compensation dependant on the contract. The full list of compensation per salaries can be found here.
So if the Rangers do try to sign Kessel then they would have to give up draft picks in return. And if we would all remember b4mv01 did a fanshot on how the trade for Brian Boyle—which saw the Rangers lose their 3rd round pick this year—makes it impossible to give it to the Bruins in compensation; thus the Rangers aren’t allowed to sign him.
So what would you do if you were Glen Sather? Do you try to make a trade for Kessel, maybe see if you can’t low ball the Bruins. Do you try to sign him to an offer sheer which doesn’t force the Rangers to turn over their 3rd round pick this year? Or do you leave it alone and don’t want anything to do with Kessel? Have at it in the comments guys this is just another weekend post to generate some discussion.
