Kessel Finally Goes to Toronto

			2008-2009 Statistics		2010
To Toronto	Pos	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit
Phil Kessel	F	22	70	60	5 years/$5.4 million
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			2008-2009 Statistics		2010
To Boston	Pos	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit
2010 1st Round Pick
2011 1st Round Pick
2010 2nd Round Pick

Phil Kessel to the Leafs. Yeah, we've been waiting for this one to come down, longer than my rumour post may have given the idea for. Between the Bruins needing to move him because of cap issues, the Leafs having cap space and Brian Burke playing coy around the issue, it just seemed like the move was kismet. Now, we've seen the deal go down and we all can breathe a sign of relief.

According to the early reports, the Leafs managed to sign Kessel in order to complete the deal. That is the deal listed in the trade details above. Kessel signed a 5-year deal worth $27 million over the duration.

In 2009, Kessel finished with a healthy amount of goals (36) and he should be ready to go for the Leafs some time in November. He won't finish the year with anywhere near 36 goals, but he should still provide enough punch to the team for the remainder of the year.

The huge salary cap figure for Kessel rockets the Leafs cap hit up to $54.1 million for 22 players, not leaving much room for players like Tyler Bozak, Christian Hanson or Viktor Stralberg. Sure, Kessel won't be playing until closer to the middle of the season, meaning that he'll hit the Long Term Injury Reserve, meaning that the Leafs will save some cap space before Kessel makes it to the line-up and starts counting against the Leafs' cap number.

In this deal, the Leafs get themselves a potential 40-goal scorer, who has already played in three seasons in the NHL. There's still plenty of life left in this kid and they have already signed what is thought to be three first rounders in Bozak, Hanson and Gustavsson. That Stralberg isn't going to be too bad either, by the looks of things. This, in all likelihood, could be one of Burke's better deals.