Two major Kessel trades fell through!

The trade chatter surrounding Phil Kessel is so loud in Pittsburgh, the echo can be heard all across the National Hockey League. 

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has been looking for a trade partner to land Kessel and on Thursday NHL insider Elliotte Friedman dropped the bomb that Pittsburgh and the Minnesota Wild were woking on a blockbuster move to trade Kessel for Jason Zucker. 

While Pierre LeBrun revealed that Kessel refuses to waive his no-trade clause to join the Wild, he did mention that he could eventually be swayed to agree to waive his NTC to be traded to the Wild, but for now, Rutherford will need to focus and keep talking with the teams on his yes list.

TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reported on the air of the show JiC that it is believed that the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are part of his list of preferred trade destinations. Simply because they have warm weather and are non-tax states. 

While Kessel keeps thinking about his list and what is best for him and the Penguins, Lavoie added that two trades fell through in the past year when Rutherford attempted to move the veteran player. 

Last summer, the Penguins look to send Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes, however, they asked for Max Domi, who was eventually traded to the Montreal Canadiens in return for Alex Galchenyuk. 

Then, there was a potential deal in place with the Golden Knights, and while the return package hasn’t been revealed, the trade never took place because of the lack of interest from Vegas. 

Which is too bad for Rutherford seeing that Kessel would reportedly accept a trade to Vegas… 

In the meantime, we keep waiting to see what uniform Kessel will wear next season.