Sam Cosentino On Mike Kelly Firing

Sam Cosentino has a column up on Sportsnet.ca with his take on the Mike Kelly firing. You should go check that out.

Cosentino cites four reasons why Kelly’s GM work may have cost him his job with the Sea Dogs.

1. The Ryan Tesink trade mess

2. The drafting of Juraj Siska

3. Not trading Pierre Durepos

4. The Kevin Gagne trade

The Tesink trade mess is an interesting one and not something I’ve really though about. Could definitely see some teams being hesitant to swing big deals with Saint John after that fiasco. No matter who was right or wrong during that ordeal, nobody came out looking good.

The Siska situation is a weird one and I certainly don't know all the details. Kelly did say in an interview during training camp that he was willing to wait all season on Siska if needed.

Not trading Durepos at the deadline last winter… I don’t know about that one. The problem with 20-year olds is that even if you have a quality player – such as Durepos – you still need to find a trading partner who either has an open overage slot or is willing to open an overage slot. That’s not always easy. Plus, finding a team with a slot and then trying to get good value in the trade isn’t easy either. Cosentino writes that Durepos “likely would’ve netted a king’s ransom” which I don’t believe would have been the case. Durepos was a very good defenseman in this league but he wasn’t exactly a Brandon Gormley.

Going along the same lines as the non-trade of Durepos, I thought the Dogs got decent value for Gagne whose career high in points before 2012-13 was 35.