Penguins

Kovacevic: Rutherford crushes it, top shelf

It really isn't that complicated.

I mean, sure it's a minor miracle that the management teams of the Penguins and Maple Leafs consummated this mammoth Phil Kessel trade Wednesday, one of the most seismic in both franchises' histories, one in which a wholly legit NHL megastar changed hands, as well as five other players, three draft picks, a mess of lawyer-ese conditions attached to those, and the meticulous division of tens of millions on Kessel's remaining tab.

Seriously, here's that fine print on those picks alone, right from the official ledger:

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This was, as Jim Rutherford described it to me at Consol Energy Center, "a hard month of talking to Toronto, a hard day at the draft, a hard few hours from last night to today."

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