The problem I see with this is Phil willing to go to AZ?

I do. I think he likes and respects the head coach and az was very close to being a contender. Idk why ppl want him gone so bad. He was the catalyst for them winning back 2 back cups. I guess everyone had an expiration date.

Fair enough. I agree why do they want kessel gone so bad. He is an elite scorer and honestly he gets it every year and its just rumors where the rumors aren't true and it happens

I mean penguins have major cap issues but Kessel is on a very fair deal and puts up 80 points a year. People will say he’s not engaged but they keep putting him on the third line randomly. Keep him with Malkin and let them play. That’s my opinion on it

I don't want him gone. Just with all the rumours it's basically been confirmed he's leaving I decided to make a mock trade.

Agree

What exactly was Arizona contending for? 16 teams make the playoffs and I don't think they were on anybodies top 10 or 12 to even make the finals, let alone win the cup.

Okay and by that logic neither was the canes blue avs Dallas or nyi and teams like the penguin Tampa Vegas and caps were eliminated in 1st round pens and tamp in 4 games haha I’m don’t understand your point at all I’m assuming bc it was a weak point or there wasn’t actually a point

Maybe you, like most people on here, aren't intelligent enough to comprehend? Ever consider that? YOU SAID ARIZONA WAS CLOSE TO BEING A CONTENDER. They didn't even make the playoffs and Vegas odds had them at a 3% chance of winning the cup. In terms of playoff predictions, pre-season they were given a 2.5% chance and it went up to 8.8% chance and went down to a 1.7% chance before they failed to make it in. The only thing they were in contention for was the final wild card spot and barely ended the season going over .500 with a -10 goal differential.

Most of you guys just wanna respond to respond and can hardly ever back your stuff up with facts or proof. It gets tiresome having to explain everything more than once and/or dumb it down. To top it all off, the responses are not well executed and they resort to lame insults (typically filled with poor grammar and spelling) just to attempt to derail the topic or distract the person making the proper argument.

You are wrong because being a contender or almost a contender is a lot different than actually being one. My point was that nobody actually considers Arizona a team that has even a remote chance of winning and if you or anybody thinks Kessel would have Arizona as one of his destinations because of a coach, who is more easily replaceable than the player, you guys are incorrect. Players waive their NMC or NTC to go to teams that have a chance to win championships.

It doesn't matter if they missed by half a point. The fact is they missed.

I only pointed out the poor grammar because you wanted insult me and doing so with poor grammar is quite foolish. Otherwise, I don't care if people can't spell lol.

What's dumber than this argument is the notion the Penguins are trading core members when they aren't in a rebuild. They won't be in a rebuild till Crosby isn't playing anymore and there's no way the are going to replace the core players production. The Penguins need to build around the core and improve the supporting staff. They have quite a few bad contracts on the team. I think Jack johnson is terrible but his cap hit manageable and it would be wise to stick it out with him for another season and use him as the person the expansion team takes. Gubranson and Hornqvist should be traded for cap relief and improvement. This I think we can both agree on.

I honestly believe that az is very close to becoming a contender. Now our opinion or definition for “contender” may be different. Im a big believer in once you get In anything can happen.

As for my grammar. I was driving and using talk to text. I’m assuming that’s why I have a lot of run on sentences or a lack punctuation ha.

Last point. It drives me nuts that the Pittsburgh fan base wants to trade Kessel. I live in Pittsburgh and I can’t tell you how many people want to trade Malkin,Kessel, letang, Murray and Maatta. Kessel and Malkin in “bad or off years” put up elite numbers or minimum point per game averages. Kessel is the whipping boy for some odd reason. I wouldn’t trade any core guys including Kessel. Maybe try to move jugs , horny and if possible JJ. Keep Maatta and use him as a third pairing guy who can play 2nd pairing if needed. He’s still fairly young.