Why isn't Kessel scoring more goals this season?

[Anisimovs AK]

Kessel's always been a bit of a volume shooter. If you look at his career shooting percentages, it's usually in the 10% to 12% range. But in year's past, he'd take close to 300 shots. This year he's shooting at 11.9%, which is around what he usually shoots, but he's taking much less shots.

It seems like he's acting the playmaker more this year. Part of it is when he's on a line with Malkin, he seems to defer to him (arguably too much). Part of it is the PP tends to go through Sid, Geno, or Letang, with Kessel being more of a passing option on that left half boards.

Every "sniper" in this league is a volume shooter. Ovechkin's shooting percentage for his career is around 12.5%. He puts 400 SOG a season, hence why he is always a threat for 50 goals

 

[Dylonus]

He's playing a complete game. He's focused much more on passing and he's also playing excellent two-way hockey.

He sacrificed his scoring ability to become a much, much better player than he already was.

He's still on pace for about 29 goals, I believe. That's still pretty good in this day in game. I think he's on pace for like 29 and 53?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

There were a few players in the past that had the ability (Lemieux, Datsyuk and Lindros IMO to name a few) but Kessel is better not having to be the go to guy. I never liked the guy and will never support the Penguins but you gotta give credit where credit is due, him and the team are better than any team in the NHL by far right now.

Are we ignoring the first half dozen years of Lemieux's career when the Pens either sucked and missed the playoffs, or barely made it but weren't a threat?

No one single player can carry a team when the rest of the roster is devoid of talent. They may have individual success (like Lemieux did on those bad Penguins teams), but the team success only comes when there's actual depth.

Essentially, Kessel was expected to do something that even the all-time greats couldn't manage to do.

 

[LeafFever]

Unless Kapanen comes in to make an impact at the NHL level, that will go down as one of the more lopsided trades of all time. Especially considering Phil won a Cup in Pittsburgh.

Not even close. They used the Pens 1st rounder to acquire Andersen.

 

[LeafFever]

For me, the most lopsided part of the deal was Rutherford being able to convince Shanahan to retain 1.2 in annual salary.

Kapanen and Harrington were just fillers. I actually didn't think of them as anything remotely close to 'A' prospects.

I thought Sprong or Pouliot were better prospects and more likely parts to a deal when Toronto agreed to the salary retention. Pens obviously did well here, they won the cup with Kessel being a 1-2 in Conn Smyhe voting, they retained their best prospects, and the biggest win IMO, they got 1.2 off the books for a player that can fit into their cap to complement Malkin and Crosby.

Pouliot's stock has dropped. Kapanen looks better.

 

[DearDiary]

Not even close. They used the Pens 1st rounder to acquire Andersen.

What you do with a trade asset doesn't change its value. For example, the Pens traded a 1st for Perron then used him to trade for Hagelin. It's not a 1st for Hagelin, it's a 1st for Perron. You can't just cover up a bad trade with another trade.

 

[LeafFever]

What you do with a trade asset doesn't change its value. For example, the Pens traded a 1st for Perron then used him to trade for Hagelin. It's not a 1st for Hagelin, it's a 1st for Perron. You can't just cover up a bad trade with another trade.

Yes it does. Trades are always judged by that in here.
What you're saying is also who they picked with that pick would not matter. That argument makes no sense.

During the Kessel trade laughter(Kessel trade to Toronto) so many reached back to find a way to add Saad into the trade.

 

[DearDiary]

Yes it does. Trades are always judged by that in here.
What you're saying is also who they picked with that pick would not matter. That argument makes no sense.

During the Kessel trade laughter(Kessel trade to Toronto) so many reached back to find a way to add Saad into the trade.

So if the Leafs used the 1st round pick to draft a bust, the Leafs traded Kessel for only Harrington+Kapanen?

Does every 1st round pick that's traded+busts mean the team gave away players for free?

 

[TMLife*]

I’m just super happy he’s out of Toronto (because I hated seeing him hate it here)! Go kill it Phil! Bring home all the cups!

 

[bunjay]

Kessel was always a great playmaker, his passing is every bit as good as his more famous wrist-shot. Now that he's no longer relied on as the main scorer, and on much better team it's no surprise that he would take fewer shots and pile up more assists.

 

[LeafFever]

So if the Leafs used the 1st round pick to draft a bust, the Leafs traded Kessel for only Harrington+Kapanen?

Does every 1st round pick that's traded+busts mean the team gave away players for free?

I've honestly never heard this argument before. How can you not count how the draft pick turns out or what they do with it?

 

[karnige]

Kessel was always a great playmaker, his passing is every bit as good as his more famous wrist-shot. Now that he's no longer relied on as the main scorer, and on much better team it's no surprise that he would take fewer shots and pile up more assists.

and he has good chemistry. hes willing to work in the system. not be a puck hog. it works. look at the results

 

[rrc1967]

I've honestly never heard this argument before. How can you not count how the draft pick turns out or what they do with it?

it's a silly argument when you have to re-write the andersen trade to make the kessel trade sound better.

 

[Regal]

Yes it does. Trades are always judged by that in here.
What you're saying is also who they picked with that pick would not matter. That argument makes no sense.

During the Kessel trade laughter(Kessel trade to Toronto) so many reached back to find a way to add Saad into the trade.

They're judged by that here because HF in general has terrible judgement. A trade doesn't become good because a team salvaged it with a good trade of the assets nor does it become bad because the assets were squandered. Deals sometimes need context but they also stand on their own.

 

[LeafFever]

it's a silly argument when you have to re-write the andersen trade to make the kessel trade sound better.

See this is an example of why Leaf fans say people are biased against the team. I never hear this argument until it suddenly appears in regards to a Leaf trade. Again, in the Kessel from Boston to Toronto trade, there were threads created on here to connect Brandon Saad to the Kessel trade. Every trade I've seen is judged on the end result.
So if the Leafs drafted a player at 30th, that player's development would not count towards who won the trade? This is the first time I've seen this absurd argument.

The Leafs have Andersen, Kapanen AND not having Kessel means they drafted Auston Matthews. They lost 26 1 goal games last season. Guaranteed they're not 30th with Kessel.
The trade is looking much better today then when it first occurred.
I'd also like to remind people here how useless Kessel was perceived when he was on the Leafs. There were comments the Leafs could never move his contract. Easily the most criticized player on here when he was a Leaf. And now suddenly it's "HAHA HOW COULD THE LEAFS ONLY GET THAT FOR KESSEL".

 

[JT Kreider]

Still on pace for about 27 goals, and I'm sure that his pace will increase over the course of the season.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

See this is an example of why Leaf fans say people are biased against the team. I never hear this argument until it suddenly appears in regards to a Leaf trade.

You're not reading many non-Leaf threads, then.

You traded for a first round pick, you didn't trade for the player that was picked with that pick.

 

[Bending and Tending]

There were a few players in the past that had the ability (Lemieux, Datsyuk and Lindros IMO to name a few) but Kessel is better not having to be the go to guy. I never liked the guy and will never support the Penguins but you gotta give credit where credit is due, him and the team are better than any team in the NHL by far right now.

Lemieux won the Cup with Jagr, Coffey, Francis, Murphy, Tocchet...

Datsyuk won the Cup with Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Shanahan, Fedorov, Hull, Robitaille, Yzerman, Chelios...

Lindros never won the Cup.

And what did Kessel do to make you not like him?

Well it's not actually, LeBron's basically the only basketball player on Earth who can pull it off. Basically my point was it's insanely hard to carry a team on your own in any professional sport.

And agreed, people ragged on Kessel for not being able to carry a team and devalued him because of it but to ask for that kind of responsibility of anybody with the team he had is crazy.

Since 1999, the NBA Finals have included at least one of: Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan, or Lebron James.

Add Jordan and Olajuwon and you can stretch this back to 1991.
Add Magic, Bird and Isiah Thomas and you can stretch it back to 1980.

Source:Reddit

 

[LeafFever]

You're not reading many non-Leaf threads, then.

You traded for a first round pick, you didn't trade for the player that was picked with that pick.

Again, I've never read this before. What a convenient way to not include Andersen in the trade.
They were not going to give up the 1st overall in the Kessel trade. That was their next highest pick. What is the difference between drafting a player or trading a player with that pick?
You're saying the 1st round pick is forever excluded from the trade. It's ridiculous.

 

[CertifiedLurker]

He's an extremely underrated playmaker and a streaky goal-scorer. If he scores 7 in his next 9 he'll be back on pace for his career average.

This is the biggest thing, I see almost no point in evaluating goal-scorers by pace over the course of the season. Most of them are streaky by nature, a lot of them could go 1 for 10 and then get 7 in the next 4. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Kessel has a stretch like that in the next 50 games.

 

[BonMorrison]

Are we still talking about Kessel's underrated passing game? This should be common knowledge at this point.

 

[dkhockey]

Did Mario? I think I remember there was one year he made the playoffs basically on his own but he didn't win the cup until he had Francis and Jagr, maybe I'm wrong.

Dats had Zetterberg for his whole career I believe and Lindros had the Legion of Doom.

I think the only star athlete in my time who's ever even come close to winning a title on his own basically (or as the only star on a team) is LeBron.

uhh, kyrie irving is a top 5 player in the NBA

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Again, I've never read this before. What a convenient way to not include Andersen in the trade.
They were not going to give up the 1st overall in the Kessel trade. That was their next highest pick. What is the difference between drafting a player or trading a player with that pick?
You're saying the 1st round pick is forever excluded from the trade. It's ridiculous.

That's not what I'm saying at all, I'm saying that the Penguins traded Nick Spaling, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington, a 1st round draft pick, and a 3rd round draft pick for Phil Kessel, Tim Erixon, Tyler Biggs, and a 2nd round draft pick.

What Toronto did with those picks is their prerogative and was completely out of Pittsburgh's hands, ditto the reverse with the 2nd round pick. Toronto did not trade Kasper Bjorkqvist to the Penguins, Kasper Bjorkqvist was simply drafted with a pick acquired in that trade. There's a pretty clear difference.

 

[malkshake]

He never had as many passing options in Toronto. Different systems make players adjust their game. Kessel is an elite passer and always has been.

 

[Offtheboard412]

He plays on a team where he's the third best goal scorer, makes sense that he'd rack up more assist.