Michel Therrian's fate may be the most pressing issue facing Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin, but it's certainly not the only major offseason storyline to follow for the Habs after they were unceremoniously ousted from the playoffs by the surging Lightning.
A close second behind whether or not to move forward with the good, but certainly not spectacular, Therrien, is a potential revamping of the forward core and, more specifically, the possible addition of an elite, top-six forward.
While options won't abound this offseason, there are avenues through which Bergevin can look to upgrade the size and scoring touch of his first and second lines.
To that end, Matt Larkin of The Hockey News suggests that Bergevin and the Habs brass should seriously consider making a run at mercurial talent, Phil Kessel, via trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs sometime during the summer.
(Please, refrain from destroying your keyboards with vehement, harshly worded responses until the end of the article.)
"The caliber of skill and immediate help Montreal requires will only come via trade," writes Larkin. "So, yes, love him or hate him, Kessel is the type of player this team needs. And the idea Kessel disappears in important games and would be a non-entity in the playoffs? Total myth. He has 13 goals and 21 points in 22 career playoff games. He scored four goals, including two game-winners, against Boston, the team that supposedly has him mentally broken, in the 2013 post-season. The U.S. squad that fell short at the Sochi Olympics? Not Kessel's fault. He had five goals and eight points in six games. He would provide the offense Montreal covets and, so far in his career, he's been surprisingly effective in high-stakes games."
The Canadiens ranked 20th in the NHL with a 2.61 goals per game average this season, a figure which marked the lowest of any of the league's playoff-bound teams.
In their six-game series against Tampa Bay, the Habs managed more than two goals just one time, leaving them with a 2.08 goals per game average for the postseason.
If it weren't for the superhuman efforts of Carey Price, the Habs likely wouldn't have advanced to the second-round of the playoffs and may not have made it into the postseason altogether, thanks to a forward corps that had just four 20-goal scorers and two 60-point producers.
Beyond Max Pacioretty - the only Habs player to manage as much as three, count them, three goals over two playoff rounds - Montreal has little in the way of confirmed scoring talent.
There's no denying that Kessel would make sense as a trade target - the difficult aspect of the equation is putting together a sensible deal that both Brendan Shanahan and Bergevin would deem acceptable.
"Could Toronto squeeze big center Jacob De La Rose, goalie prospect Zach Fucale and a 2015 first-rounder out of Bergevin? Seems fair," writes Larkin. "If I'm the Leafs, I would start by aiming higher and ask for Alex Galchenyuk and a first rounder. Montreal would probably be loathe to move Galchenyuk, 21, but he's still not guaranteed to be a superstar. It's a fair asking price for a team surrendering the fourth-leading goal scorer since 2010."
It's a farfetched notion of course and quite unlikely to happen for any number of reasons.
Kessel's $8 million cap hit would be hard to swallow for the Habs even if the Leafs were to eat some of it. Kessel also has a limited no-trade clause, meaning he can pick eight teams to which he would accept a trade - there's no guarantee the Canadiens would appear on that list.
The media has not been kind to Kessel in Toronto - would it be any better in Cup-starved Montreal?
In the end, a Kessel deal almost assuredly won't come to fruition - with Montreal at least - but it's a fun scenario to play out.
And really, for Habs and Leafs fans sick of watching their teams fall well short of expectations, isn't every potential avenue for upgrade worth exploring?
