It appears that the Coyotes are going to relieve the Penguins after Phil Kessel wore out his welcome in the Steel City.
According to various reports, Arizona acquired the forward from Pittsburgh in exchange for Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Alex Galchenyuk. Also heading to the Coyotes is Dane Birks and a 2021 4th round pick.
Moving Kessel doesn’t come as much of a surprise as the Pens have been trying to do so for some time now. In fact Pittsburgh had a deal on the table to send him to Minnesota for Jason Zucker but Kessel reportedly initiated his no trade clause to block it. Arizona apparently works for him though since he seems cool with Coyotes assistant Rick Tocchet which may come in handy for the Yotes when you consider Kessel has developed a reputation around the League as a guy who’s hard to coach.
In the meantime Galchenyuk will earn himself a chance to improve on the 19 goals and 22 assists he had with Arizona last season as he enters the final year of his deal before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
Kessel on the other hand played in all 82 games last season for the Pens notching 27 goals and 55 assists.
