Where will Phil Kessel eat his hot dogs next?
Phil Kessel is 34 years old and climbing out of the dumpster fire that continues to grow in Arizona. He certainly is not the goal scorer that he used to be but somehow he's managing to evolve his play to match his age, dishing 40+ assists last year to a mostly terrible Coyotes group. He can still be a factor and could be a strong piece to almost any playoff hopefull. Let's take a peek at a few of them.
One of the most common teams I have seen in having this discussion with people has been the LA Kings. This would make sense. The Kings were a surprise to most last year finishing 3rd in the Pacific. The addition of Kevin Fiala here has some Kings fans excited and if Rob Blake were to somehow convince Kessel to take a large enough pay cut to fit in their roughly 1.5 million in cap space this would be a huge pickup for a team looking to push themselves over the top. I find it unlikely that Kessel takes that large of a pay cut to play in California where the taxes are crazy, but stranger things have happened before.
Kessel has the look and feel of a Midwest guy to me. How about Music City? The Predators are another team that just needs a piece or two to be squarely in the mix. While adding Phil the Thrill won't make up much ground between the Preds and the Avalanche in their division, it could at least have them taken a little more seriously if they meet again in the first round next year. Smashville has around 2.3 million in cap space and Kessel might even drop to the 3rd line here.
But Texas is where this man really needs to be. The Stars need offensive help bad. Outside of the top line they wouldn't have been able to score goals on a soccer net last season and still managed to finish 1 point ahead of Nashville in the standings. Dallas does have 10.3 mill in cap space at the moment but still need to tie up a couple re-signings. If they could make the numbers work for Kessel he would slot in the 2nd line here and could help the Stars make up ground on the Blues and Wild. And having been in Dallas many times, I can tell you they have some great places to get a hot dog.
| POLL | ||
Will Phil ever get to eat his franks from the cup again? | ||
| Yep, load em up! | 19 | 43.2 % |
| No way. | 25 | 56.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
