i dunno, kessel seems like a poor man's thomas vanek...not very good on the defensive side, can't back-check very well, undersized forward, goal scoring comes in spurts rather than consistently...
im not sure if the "such a no brainer its not funny" is directed towards the bruins mangement on why they havent signed him yet or other teams gm's on why they have extended an offer sheet yet but the notion that "he's a good player, he's not signed, why hasn't anyone given him an offer sheet?" is stupid. It's not true- I'm sure he's negotiated with other teams...but if he and his agent are in this to make the most money long term, then they wouldn't sign a long-term offer sheet. They'd want to do a short one for one or two years, have him boost his earning power and have another kick at the can soon. I'm sure Kessel himself thinks he can improve on this past season- if he does, he's going to make a hell of a lot more money by biding his time and signing a long-term deal down the road. And no team is going to give up the picks to sign the guy to a one-year contract, it just wouldn't be smart.
it's going to require an offer sheet of at least $5 million for the B's to let kessel leave. There are very few teams that have $5 million or more to spend and are under the cap, teams like the Islanders, Columbus, and Phoenix come to mind and they have that much cap space for a reason - they’re not going to come close to approaching the cap no matter what. Also, those teams generally rebuild thru the draft, more so in this economy. A team that signs Kessel would have to fork over first-, second-, and third-round picks to the Bruins, in itself is an expensive ordeal, and that doesn't even include the money they have to pay kessel. Not to mention next year, the cap is supposed to decrease by 3 million and teams will have even less money to spend.