Dude, stop living in 2005. You don't have to be the best to get 7-8 anymore.
I think that is pretty good numbers actually. He is our most dangerous player with the puck but sadly also with out the puck. I do admit he show improvements and are buying in to the system but they said similar things in Boston as well. Go and do a search on the Bruins board for Kessel discussions from his time there. They talk about how weak defensively he is and how soft his play is and then there is several others who comes to his rescue and point out that he is beginning to buy in to the system, that he looks more committed etc. The same discussions we have had here since day 1. But who knows, perhaps he finds the perfect balance between playing a team oriented system and also cheat just enough to keep being one of the leagues best snippers, other players have done it so I dont rule out he can do it as well.
I think he likes playing in Toronto and enjoy his teammates and also that he is well liked among them. So in that regard I do think he have become a lot more mature. But then the demands, realistically, have not been very high during his tenure. We have been a team hoping to make the playoffs but no one demand the team to make it and even less so win it all. How playing under Carlyle effects his goal scoring long term is just as much an issue for him as it is for us seeing as scoring goals is what defines him as a player.
He have some characteristics that is pointed out as weaknesses but that just as well be a strength. When he dropped during his draft year he was often asked how it felt going from #1 to almost out of the top 5 and he said, honestly, that he did not care. After the All star draft circus he made the same comments, and I believe him. The same way that he and others have said that he actually is not very affected by the media, even in Toronto I think that the personality he posses would do well in pressured situations like a playoff series.
But I still think that a 5 year deal is good. No need to commit any longer to a goalscoring winger whose game is purely based around his offensive production and Kessel would be one of the exception if he keeps scoring at the level he have done for more then 10 years in the NHL.
$6m per year, well that can of course be a bit higher, depending on the cap, who else we need to resign etc. But since what he brings is goals and assists but noting else than $6m is fair imo.