Darren Dreger on TSN radio on Phil Kessel, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Pens interest in Kessel:
“I spoke with Jim Rutherford of the Penguins yesterday as well. Is he appreciative of the type of player Kessel can be as a prolific goal scorer? Of course he is. Does he think that there’s anyway to make a deal like that? No not really, not seriously because think of what the Pittsburgh Penguins would have to do to make room in their cap for Phil Kessel. It would be Brandon Sutter, it would be perhaps Chris Kunitz, it would be this, it would be that. And I’m not sure that those players… I mean Brandon Sutter is a young man, relatively young, and has tremendous upside no question about that but again from a Leafs perspective, if you’re trading Phil Kessel which I believe is a goal of this organization, you need to be able to get a return that yes of course is going to include maybe a bad contract to make the deal happen but its gotta include good young prospects and draft picks. That’s where it’s at for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The bigger type of deal may not be exactly what the Leafs are looking for unless again, its full of the pieces I’ve just mentioned but that’s not good for Pittsburgh because of the financial restrictions in all of this so I tihnk it’s highly, highly unlikely that the Pittsburgh Penguins end up with Phil Kessel but look… Pittsburgh is a team that has some clear offensive weapons and if you could add one more, particularly a scoring winger, why wouldn’t you try? I just don’t see it as being the right fit.”
Willingness to retain salary:
“Well look, it seems to be going back and forth. I’m told by teams that Toronto has absolutely acknowledged a willingness to retain salary and yet I’ll read other reports where Shanahan seems like they’re less interested in that because they don’t feel they have to. I think they get a much better deal if they retain some salary and why wouldn’t you? If you go back to the Dion Phaneuf and the Detroit Red Wings negotiations leading up to the trade deadline, Stephen Weiss had to be a part of that deal. Well that wasn’t the deal breaker for Nonis and the Maple Leafs. What’s the big deal? I mean you’re taking on a bad contract but you’re moving out an enormous amount of money and term in Phaneuf’s contract so you live with it and Toronto isn’t going to be a contending team or a cap-strapped team until they’re ready to make their move and vy for a playoff spot. So that just comes with the territory and chances are you’re going to get a much better deal if you take on a bad contract because you’re opening up the door to a larger number of teams. I think that there could be fits out there where Toronto doesn’t have to retain salary, but I think the Leafs would be foolish if they didn’t consider it.”
Transcribed by Platinum Seat Ghosts from TSN 1050 Radio