Penguins give Sullivan a big vote of confidence off the heels of a major controversy.

Mike Sullivan comes out on top.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Penguins give Sullivan a big vote of confidence off the heels of a major controversy.
Chris Szagola/CSM/Zuma

The Pittsburgh Penguins clearly chose a side here, and I think that their fans will likely stand behind the organization on this one.

For weeks and weeks we had been hearing the name of Pittsburgh Penguins' star forward Phil Kessel being tossed about in trade rumors around the National Hockey League. At first the rumors seemed like a fabrication of the hockey media due in large part to the fact that Kessel has been, and continues to be, a truly dominant offensive force in the NHL. The star forward is coming off the heels of another point per game season and the thought of trading such a productive player, especially one with such a reasonable cap hit thanks in part to the Toronto Maple Leafs retaining a portion of his salary, seemed like pure fantasy.

As the weeks wore on however it became abundantly clear that these were not mere rumors and in fact it became more and more evident that the Pittsburgh Penguins were dead set on moving Kessel off of their roster. So much so that when general manager Jim Rutherford came out and attempted to downplay those rumors Penguins insiders were quick to report that trading Kessel very much remained the plan in Pittsburgh. We would come to learn that the problems caused by having Phil Kessel in your locker room finally outweighed his production on the ice for the Penguins, something the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs both learned in time as well. Reports surfaced of Kessel's negative influence on the team's young talents of the future and once again there was talk of a major conflict behind the scenes between Kessel and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan.

That is why the announcement this week that the Penguins have signed Sullivan to a 4 year contract extension, an extension that comes just a few short days after the trade that finally sent Kessel out of town, should come as very little surprise. It is now clear that Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford put his foot down here and very much sided with his head coach in the ongoing feud between Sullivan and Kessel. Although none of us can truly know how toxic things got behind the scenes Kessel has earned himself a reputation as a "coach killer" or locker room cancer in the past. It would come as no surprise to me that Rutherford did what he felt he had to do for the sake of his organization's future, and there are some minor signs he was not alone in his thinking.

Penguins star forward Evgeni Malkin published a video on his Instagram following the announcement of the Kessel trade, and the video shows one of Kessel's more infamous moments as a Penguin. Kessel was reportedly irate with Malkin during the game in question, and you have to believe that there is a very specific reason why Malkin chose to use this video as a farewell sendoff to the controversial forward.

The Penguins are hoping here that removing Kessel from their locker room will help improve their roster as a whole, as they clearly gave up the best player in the trade with the Coyotes. It was an odd move for a team in win-now mode with an aging Sidney Crosby and the aforementioned Malkin anchoring your top 2 lines, but it was a move the Penguins clearly felt they were forced to make.


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