Penguins GM doesn't foresee trading Kessel 'right now'

Jim Rutherford is tapping the brakes on any trade speculation surrounding Phil Kessel.

The seeds of that conjecture were planted by local columnists in recent days, most notably Ron Cook of the Post-Gazette. Cook suggested the Penguins could look to ship Kessel out of town in light of the departure of Rick Tocchet, with whom the winger had a close relationship.

But in an interview on 93.7 The Fan on Thursday, the Penguins general manager affirmed Kessel's significance to a team coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup wins.

"Phil Kessel's an important part of the Penguins," Rutherford said, according to Jonathan Bombulie of TribLive. "He gets a lot of points. He scores big goals. He sets up big goals. The more impact players that you have, like we have, the better chance you have of winning. ...

"I don't want to sit here and say that a certain player's not going to get traded at some point in his career. I mean, Phil already did. But that's not something that I foresee happening right now."

Rutherford did qualify his assessment of Kessel by pointing to an apparent lack of consistency.

"It may not be on a regular basis, but it may come at a certain time in a series or whatnot, just like it did against Ottawa," Rutherford said. "Kessel came up with the big goal in that 1-0 game (in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals)."

In two seasons since being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kessel has averaged 0.79 points per game during the regular season, and contributed 18 goals and 27 assists in 49 postseason appearances. Those 45 playoff points put him one behind both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin over the same span.

According to Cap Friendly, Kessel has five years remaining on a contract that carries an $8-million annual salary cap hit, $1.2 million of which was retained by the Maple Leafs. His deal also contains a modified no-trade and no-movement clauses that allows him to submit a list of eight teams he'd move to should he agree to be traded.