PHIL KESSEL
This one is a little outside the box, but hear me out. Phil Kessel is clearly a much better contributing forward than he is a star player. The Devils don’t need a star player. They have Taylor Hall. Kessel doesn’t even have to play on the top line. The Devils could sorely use him to pot in goals from passes the come from Pavel Zacha or Marcus Johansson.
The Pittsburgh Penguins need to make changes. They already made some moves, trading away Carl Hagelin for Tanner Pearson. This allows the Penguins to get younger, even if they are giving away some speed in the process.
This trade would obviously change the look of the Penguins, but that seems to be what they need. They could get a couple of the Devils prospects that are just about NHL ready, put them on a team with two of the best players on the planet, and watch them flourish.
The Penguins are currently last place in the Eastern Conference. They could use a pretty large overhaul. Kessel still has four more years, paying him $8 million per season. However, the Maple Leafs are currently paying $1.6 million of that contract. If the Penguins retain $1.4 million of that salary, then his pay becomes a much more manageable $5 million per season. Sure, that’s a long commitment to Kessel, but he could be the piece the Devils are missing.