Kessel’s absence heightens mystery
Letang was talking about the club’s core players and how they “aren’t going anywhere” when I wondered if he was confident he’d be here next season.
“Is that your question?” he said. “Am I supposed to be in control of that?”
I suggested he is partially in control of that — he has a limited no-trade clause — and added that probably only two guys in the room (87 and 71) are immune from trade talk.
Then he surprised me, when he quietly but firmly responded: “I sacrificed everything for this team. My only goal is to spend the rest of my career here. That’s all I can say.”
I hear that. I hear Letang’s passion. His teammates respect that passion more than you know. Brian Dumoulin and Sidney Crosby gushed about how Letang battled back from a delicate neck surgery that cost him not only last year’s playoffs but an offseason of preparation.
“I mean, you could see how hard he was trying,” Dumoulin said.
“That guy cares so much about his team and his teammates. I was honored to play with him.”
Still, the question of whether Letang will or should be back is a fair one, given that he is 31, carries a huge cap hit ($7.25 million) for the next four years and is coming off a schizophrenic season.
Is now the optimal time to deal him?
Is he worth the money, especially if he isn’t guaranteed to be on the top power play?
I say yes. I say Letang, with all his struggles, had 51 points in the regular season (17th among defensemen) and 11 points in 12 playoff games (tied for third among defensemen).
He still is Crosby’s favorite collaborator. He remains, in the words of coach Mike Sullivan, an “elite defenseman.”
So give Letang a full offseason, bring him back and turn him loose. You’ll have to live with errors in judgment, yes, but if you get the Letang from two years ago — the one who easily could have won the Conn Smythe Trophy — it’ll be well worth it.
Hockey’s funny with all the talk of role players, energy guys, seventh defensemen. And I’m not saying you don’t need them. But winning starts with talent. Elite talent, and that is ultimately my argument for keeping Letang. You don’t find that kind of talent just anywhere.
Which brings us back to Kessel. What a story he became, starting with the sight of his gear already gone when reporters entered the locker room at 10:30 a.m.
That meant Kessel wasn’t going to address the biggest question clouding the Penguins’ early exit: What happened to him this spring compared to the previous two, when he led all NHL players with 18 postseason goals?
My feeling, throughout the playoffs, was that Kessel deserved the benefit of the doubt. It seemed unfathomable that he could go from consistently threatening presence to harmless ghost if not for an injury. He rarely shot the puck and never with the kind of velocity we’re used to. He had all of one goal in 12 games.
When I entered the room, I fully expected to hear of an abdominal, wrist or shoulder injury — something fairly major — that hampered him. I heard no such thing.
Sullivan’s take: “He was dealing with bumps and bruises, just like some of our other guys … it was nothing significant, I can tell you that.”
General manager Jim Rutherford said Kessel had been contending with injuries all season and “to his credit, he played through those.”
I actually wonder if it was to Kessel’s detriment to play through those. Is his consecutive-games streak that important?
In any case, Rutherford confirmed Kessel would not require offseason surgery. He also said: “His playoff was not what it has been the last couple of years. And I know that some of those things he dealt with caught up with him.”
OK, that was somewhat of a defense of Kessel. But it was nothing compared to Rutherford’s emphatic answer when asked to explain Brassard’s disappointing postseason.
“He played with an injury that’s very difficult to play with,” Rutherford said.
Hmmm. In the end, I’m left to surmise that Kessel simply had a terrible playoff. He isn’t the first star player to do that here. It happens. You move on.
The question is, do you move on with Kessel or look to move him and his hefty cap hit — like Letang, four more years — while you can?
I go back to elite talent trumping all. Kessel makes the Penguins impossible to defend when he is right. He carried the team the first half of the season. Contrary to popular belief, I think he’ll flourish into his mid-30s. He was in better shape this year than any other. Bring him back.
Incidentally, I also asked Brassard if he thought Kessel might have been playing through significant injury.
“No idea,” he said. “You’re going to have to ask him.”
I looked over at Kessel’s empty locker, looked back at Brassard and said, “That might be tough.”
Joe Starkey: jstarkey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @joestarkey1. Joe Starkey can be heard on the “Starkey and Mueller” show weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.