WATCH ABOVE: The Phil Kessel era in Toronto is over after the Leafs traded the high-scoring winger to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Rob Leth reports.
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs completed a blockbuster trade to send star winger Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Toronto gets winger Nick Spaling, prospects Kasperi Kapanen and Scott Harrington, a third-round pick and a conditional first in the move.
“Phil’s certainly a very talented player, but we knew changes had to come,” Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said Wednesday.
The Leafs also sent forward Tyler Biggs and defenceman Tim Erixon to Pittsburgh along with a conditional pick.
WATCH: Brendan Shanahan says ‘changes had to come’ for Leafs
If the Penguins make the playoffs next season, the Leafs receive their first-round pick and send Pittsburgh back the second-rounder they currently own from the Daniel Winnik trade.
If the star-studded Penguins miss the playoffs, the first-round/second-round pick exchange will happen in 2017 instead, and if they miss each of the next two seasons Toronto gets Pittsburgh’s 2017 second-rounder.
Trading Kessel is the first step toward dismantling the Leafs’ core after missing the playoffs yet again. It’s unclear what other moves Toronto’s front office will make this summer in rebuilding the roster.
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“This is about a recognition on our part that what we’ve been doing here and the group that we assembled here wasn’t getting the job done,” Shanahan said. “We are here to build a team that is capable of winning the Stanley Cup and there are no shortcuts to go around doing that.”
Kessel had 25 goals and 36 assists for the Leafs last season. It was the first time Kessel failed to reach the 30-goal plateau in a full season with the Maple Leafs.
Kessel has seven more years on his contract at a cap hit of US$8 million a season. The Leafs will reportedly retain 15 per cent of that ($1.2 million), leaving the Penguins with $6.8 million.
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The 27-year-old Kessel had trade value because of his consistent offence, with 247 goals and 273 assists in 668 NHL games.
The five-time 30-goal scorer joins a Penguins lineup that includes captain Sidney Crosby and Russian star Evgeni Malkin.
In other moves Wednesday, the Leafs signed defenceman Matt Hunwick to a two-year deal reportedly worth US$2.4 million.
The Leafs re-signed forward Richard Panik and reportedly inked forward P.A. Parenteau to one-year deals.
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