Rumor: Phil Kessel Requests Trade

The Arizona Coyotes have embraced their rebuild, as they have traded away many of their top players.  They also have brought in multiple players on bad contracts to receive quality draft picks. With all of this said, it is not much of a surprise that Phil Kessel has requested a trade, according to Craig Morgan. 

Kessel has one year left on his current contract. It has an average annual value of $8 million, but only carries a $6.8 million cap hit because the Maple Leafs are retaining $1.2 million of it. Even with this being so, it is still a pretty expensive contract for a team to take on. 

In 56 games this past season with the Coyotes, Kessel scored 20 goals and recorded 43 points. Therefore, he is still a quality top-six winger in the NHL. He also always manages to stay healthy, so that makes him an interesting player to consider. He has yet to slow down much at all, even though he is 33-years-old. There could very well be a few teams who would be willing to take on his salary because of all of this. 

In 1,122 career games in the league, Kessel has scored 391 goals and has 904 points. It's been a very solid career for the forward, but he very well could be joining his fifth NHL team next season. We will see what transpires. 

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