It's another offseason in the NHL, so the inevitable Phil Kessel trade rumors are flying once again. The difference this time is that he appears to already have been almost traded once. He just rejected it. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild reportedly had a deal in place that Kessel nixed which would may have included Jack Johnson going to the Wild with him in return for Jason Zucker and Victor Rask.

You might be thinking to yourself "that's all that took"? As the Dallas Stars dive head first into the offseason searching for offense, they should really give a long look at making a run at Kessel if Pittsburgh is determined to move him.

THE KESSEL RUN: @TSNBobMcKenzie on @LeafsLunch1050 examining the likelihood of Phil Kessel being traded by the Penguins and the speculation surrounding his eight-team exception list https://t.co/4kMphLip2H #TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/3Ox8jyppiM — TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) May 24, 2019

We could go into what a great player he is again, but instead I'll simply link you to this story from last year. He's still just as great.

Kessel still checks all the underlying statistics tracked by Corey Sznajder. He has finished with 70, 92, and 82 points the past three seasons. The man produces. If you're a team looking for offense, you could do significantly worse than Kessel.

The 31-year old has three years left on his contract that will make him a free agent right as John Klingberg needs a new deal. His $6,800,000 cap hit this year easily fits into what the Stars can do this offseason, and depending on the return to Pittsburgh, it could actually clean up some of the Stars salary cap issues down the roster or open up further avenues for roster improvement.

I took the liberty of adding Kessel's salary to the information available from Cap Friendly with some projections of the salary cap going forward. Much like a potential Mats Zuccarello contract, Kessel easily fits.

If he is willing to come to Dallas, the only difficult part would be figuring out the package necessary to make it happen. In the deal the Penguins reportedly reached with the Wild, you're essentially looking at Kessel for Zucker. Rask for Johnson is just a swap of bad contracts intended to even the money out. If you can make the move with a neutral salary exchange, while giving the Penguins a decent but less valuable player to Kessel, it seems like you can have him.

The challenge for the Stars is that they don't have someone like Zucker to move, though they could make up for it in quantity. Radek Faksa and Valeri Nichushkin are both young with talent. A team like Pittsburgh could see potential projects in these two players, who could fit long term. I don't know what fixes Nichushkin, but learning from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin can't hurt.

Dallas clearly has little use for Julius Honka. If Pittsburgh is attempting to save money to retool the rest of the roster, a young defender like Honka could make sense, especially if the Penguins were able to move a more expensive contract like Johnson or Olli Maatta in the process. The Penguins do have a glut of defensemen, but saving money is saving money.

I'm not sure how the Stars would pull it off, but if Kessel is readily available for a price relatively similar to the reported deal, it would be foolish not to sniff around. Re-signing Zuccarello is going to cost the Stars a first round pick. If a better player is available on a shorter contract who will potentially cost less than that pick, it seems like a slam dunk to try and make it happen.