The Nashville Predators have reportedly put forth an offer to the Boston Bruins for Phil Kessel. According to NESN.com, the Preds have offered a 1st round pick, the rights to Alexander Radulov, and a top defensive prospect. It’s hard to rate this potential trade considering we don’t know who the defensive prospect is. Obviously if it’s their best defensive prospect, then it’s a better deal than their 2nd or 3rd best prospect. Trading for Radulov is also risky as who knows if/when he’ll be coming back to the NHL, but when he was here, he showed great offensive talents. I’m sure there is a clause in the offer that says Kessel has to sign a contract for the deal to become final. By the sounds of it, Kessel would rather sign in Toronto over Nashville.
The same article says the the Leafs may also throw in a prospect/player to go along with the 2 1sts and 2nd round pick. It’s also mentioned that the Burke might be considering an offer sheet if the Bruins don’t accept an offer this weekend. If an offer sheet was matched, the Bruins would have to move out some salary quickly; Chuck Kobasew, Andrew Ference, and maybe Tuukka Rask (back the minors), would have to be moved out. If an offer sheet was matched, I bet the salary cap implications would be a lot trickier for future years, especially if the cap is going to drop $4-7 million next year.
Minnesota has signed Petr Sykora so they are most likely not interested in trading for Kessel anymore. The NY Rangers are reportedly out as well.
