Why is this news?
Well, the move now gives Toronto their own first, second and third-round picks in the next NHL entry draft, which is the prerequisite for any team that would want to submit an offer sheet on a top restricted free agent player this summer.
If the Leafs have the ability to submit an offer sheet to a restricted free agent, it is possible that they could be preparing to reignite talks with the Bruins and GM Peter Chiarelli about Kessel. The two teams may (or may not) have come close to completing a deal at the draft that would have sent Kessel to Toronto in exchange for Tomas Kaberle.
The exchange of draft picks, of course, doesn't necessarily mean anything regarding Kessel, but Toronto GM Brian Burke likely wouldn't make such a trade for the sake of making a trade.
While we won't know if or when Kessel will be dealt, we do know one thing for sure: he wasn't traded to the St. Louis Blues. A hockeyjournal.com error resulted in a headline that said Kessel was traded to the Blues, though the Web site later apologized for a server problem that made "a draft of a Web page that was never meant to be posted on the site show up on the site."
Earlier in the week, Chiarelli spoke to the Boston Herald about the Kessel situation, offering both positive and negative indicators about the forward's future with the B's.
“There’s a balance that you have to keep,” Chiarelli said to the Herald. “Phil’s a terrific young player, but I’m responsible to our team. I’ve said publicly and I’ll say it again: I want Phil to be on our team. I’ll do everything I can do to put him on our team — within reason and within the balance that I’m talking about. If it means moving players, I’ll do it; if it means matching offer sheets, I’ll do it.”
While Chiarelli seemed determined to retain last year's leading goal scorer, he didn't appear to be ready to concede any ground.
“I’d prefer not to comment, but I understand [the Kessel camp is] waging a bit of a media war,” Chiarelli said. “Please don’t believe everything you read out there. I can just give him a pail full of money and it’ll be done. It’s not as simple as that. It’s a different system now. To be a hard-liner, so to speak, you have to keep in mind what these players make after their entry-level contracts. The percentage of increase is huge and what it does is it throws everything else out of whack.”
