Whenever I read a post like this about Kessel, that has lots of validity, I always substitute Geno in, and see if it still holds water. And it largely does. What no Pens fan likes to admit, is that's it's just as emotional to think Geno is still an elite, goal-scoring two-way center in the league who drives play. He's been injury riddled for years, has difficulty even eating healthy in the offseason let alone working out properly, and is now effectively a power play specialist who has lost his shot thanks to JVR and time. I love Phil and Geno both as players and for what they brought to the Pens, but the reality is that the flashes of brilliance from Geno will be fewer and farther between, and he needs a lot of support to achieve those peaks.
And that brings us back to the failure of the Kessel trade. It was getting harder and harder to make Geno + Kessel successful at ES, so dumping the one who wasn't a franchise cornerstone was most likely the right call, but they needed to bring in an actual two-way player who can do some dirty work for Geno. So the opposite of AG. I really expected them to just flip him for futures or in a hockey deal before the season started, but JR got caught admiring his pass and now AG is in a downward spiral in a contract year trying to shoot the puck between his legs and similar nonsense. Jesse just looked at AG's underlying stats in long form, they are also not good. He's dragging everyone down he plays with.
So how can anyone who hated the way Kessel played be ok with how AG is playing and his continued spot on the roster? At the very least Kessel filled a definitive need for us on the PP, AG doesn't even do that.
The Kessel deal was only good for us for if we can, in fact, get rid of AG without taking back a husk or get him to play the right way this year. I'm not sure either is possible. If they trade AG for a Victor Rask who sucks and has term, I'm just going to lose it.
