When Jim Rutherford and the Pittsburgh Penguins were rumored to be in talks with Toronto to acquire Phil Kessel, most saw that as nothing more than wishful thinking. When the deal was officially announced and neither Derrick Pouliot or Olli Maatta were included, things seemed even crazier than the rumor itself.
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The Penguins did however give up a very solid young prospect in Kasperi Kapanen. While some wondered if he could crack the top-six in Pittsburgh for the 2015-16 season, everyone understood that they would need to be patient with the young forward as he found his place in North American hockey. However, at this point, it seems that patience is exactly opposite of what he’s experiencing in Toronto.
I’ve been extremely impressed with Toronto fans over the past few months, whether it be on the site or conversations via Twitter. There’s an overwhelming understanding of why Kessel had to go and most have wished him the best in Pittsburgh with guys like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The issue though, is and always has been, the Toronto media.
Brendan Shanahan and his widely regarded “Shana-plan” is in full-stride for the Leafs. His main focus is stockpiling young players while scooping up as many draft picks as humanly possible in order to bolster the team’s future talent pool. And, quite frankly, his plan is working from what we can tell. A future that includes Mitch Marner and Kasperi Kapanen as main components sounds good.
However, someone should define the word “future” to the Toronto media before it’s too late.
Kapanen has been a trooper so far with any media he has faced. During his short stint with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the AHL affiliate for the Pittsburgh Penguins, he seemed confident and understanding of the high expectations here. Pittsburgh has been searching for a true top-six winger for Crosby since the departure of Marian Hossa and though it’s debatable whether or not he fits that mold, that was the hope. His demeanor with the media could be changing now that he’s facing questions in Toronto.
It seems that the very unfair comparison of him to Kessel is continuously made by that group. The inability to escape that line of questioning is quite frustrating and similar to how Kessel began handling the media there, Kapanen is beginning to be a bit blunt. I can’t say I blame him.
This past weekend in Ontario, Kapanen was asked once again about the comparison and answered with the following.
"I don’t know how many times I have to answer that question. I’m me. I’m Kasperi Kapanen. I was in the trade. There were other people in the trade. I don’t think you need to compare us. If you want to, that’s fine."
Let’s be very clear. Kasperi Kapanen is 19-years old. He’s working to develop his game at this level and find a spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015-16. He’s already under an immense amount of pressure considering the high-profile trade that he was involved in and the media is simply making things much worse than they need to be. It’s almost like they’re looking for another Kessel after they just did their part to help run him out-of-town.
Hopefully, the youngster can withstand the weight on his shoulders in Toronto. I was looking forward to watching him develop with the Pittsburgh Penguins but obviously can’t complain about the reason he’s now in Toronto. I’d like to see him succeed there as well but it isn’t going to be easy. Will he ever be good enough for them? Kessel is a pretty good hockey player and he apparently wasn’t.
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