The Phil Kessel trade is an organizational catastrophe waiting to happen for the Penguins, one that irrationally bets the club’s present on a notoriously brittle and expensive core and almost punts on its long-term future.
With the former Toronto winger in the fold for seven years at nearly $7 million, Pittsburgh now has 52 percent of its $71.4 million salary cap invested in just five elite talents — Kessel, centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, defenseman Kris Letang and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
If there’s any club that should know how dangerous that is, it’s the Penguins, who just weeks ago saw their Stanley Cup playoff hopes evaporate as Letang sat out with a concussion.