Trade Rumor: A team is very interested in dealing for Maple Leafs' Kessel!

There is one team above all others who would love to have Phil Kessel on their team. Harvey Fialkov of the South Florida Sun Sentinel has reported that the Florida Panthers are very interested in acquiring the Maple Leafs sniper. However, their interest is apparently not deep enough to part with one of the team's young stars, meaning Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and, of course, Aaron Ekblad won't come back in a deal for Kessel. In reality there is no trade partner more ideal for Toronto than the Panthers. They have plenty of space under the cap and usually have difficulty landing big names in free-agency. They typically require creative means to land top-end skill. Kessel does own a partial no-trade clause as part of his eight-year, $64-million contract signed in 2013, but has become somewhat of a whipping boy for the Leafs. Brendan Shanahan has already stated that Kessel is not in the team's immediate plans for he future, so this is a deal that could make sense for both sides.