FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2014, file photo, Toronto Maple Leafs' Phil Kessel pauses during a photo shoot at training camp in Toronto. The Maple Leafs sent 27-year-old Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, July 1, 2015, in a blockbuster deal that gives the Penguins a needed boost in its top six and gives the Maple Leafs some flexibility as they begin to retool under new coach Mike Babcock. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

The Phil Kessel trade was, in many ways, an eventuality. The Maple Leafs only had to find a team with the cap space — or in this case, cap space facilitated through salary retention — and will to take on a guy who had come to be perceived as a “problem” in Toronto.

Of course, Kessel wasn't actually a problem, because he was in fact one of the few bright spots for what was a miserable team for his entire run in Toronto. No one wants to paint it that way because he was in some ways discourteous to the local media (i.e. he didn't put up with their BS), and he was a highly paid, high-skill player on a team that was mired in garbage water before he got there and will continue to be for at least a few more years.

Those who want to run down Kessel will point to the losing, which is more or less beyond his control, because they cannot in any way denigrate the numbers or the durability. From 2009-present, he has missed exactly 12 games, and none since 2010-11 began. The 181 goals he scored in 446 games for the Leafs is fifth in the league over those six seasons. The 213 assists is eighth.

He is, in fact, one of just 10 players league-wide to clear 150 goals and 200 assists in the last six seasons, and the other nine are guys everyone in the Toronto media would have run over a family member to see the Leafs acquire: Martin St. Louis, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin, John Tavares, Alex Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews, Jamie Benn and Corey Perry.

And while the Toronto media is obviously loath to get into the “fancy” stats (or as they are known, counting numbers with some division mixed in), over that time Kessel is also tied for fifth in terms of goals per 60 minutes, tied for 16th in assists per 60, and tied for eighth in points per 60. You really can't ask for more than that from a player. The company is more than elite. We're talking about basically a top-10 forward by just about any measure.

This is and always was an elite forward we're talking about here, and Toronto has traded him for peanuts. Well, they traded him for the purpose of not paying Phil Kessel more than 15 percent of his salary for the next several years, because the team is rebuilding and they could get pieces for him. This is probably not the case with Dion Phaneuf, who seems more untradeable than Kessel was ever going to be. Kessel is at least an elite talent. Phaneuf is a borderline No. 1/2 defenseman, not that there's anything wrong with that.

And, as long as we're being honest about Kessel's time in Toronto, let's also include the fact that he — in part because of his own preferences — had to lug a heavy weight up and down the ice almost every shift in the form of his best friend in the whole wide world. Tyler Bozak is not a No. 1 center in the NHL. He's not as bad as everyone makes him out to be (and he's certainly overpaid), but he's also not the kind of guy that should be feeding pucks to high-quality wingers like Kessel and James van Riemsdyk. Now, again, this is Kessel's best friend and Kessel felt comfortable with him on the ice, so who was Randy Carlyle or any other coach to break them up as long as Kessel kept filling the net with goals (which, you'll remember from above, he certainly did).

But how much of a hindrance was Bozak? A pretty big one, as it turns out.

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