The summer long contract standoff between the Boston Bruins and forward Phil Kessel ended tonight when the Bruins shipped the 21-year-old forward to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for the Leafs first and second round picks in 2010 and their first round pick in 2011. 

Kessel also agreed to a five-year, $27 million contract with his new club, which will count as $5.4 million per season againt the Leafs salary cap. 

This news doesn't come as a surprise for most NHL fans, particularly those in Toronto and Boston. Leafs general manager Brian Burke tried unsuccessfully back at the June entry draft in Montreal to land Kessel via trade, offering up defenseman Tomas Kaberle at the time but the deal fell through over a disagreement of the draft picks to be included. 

Burke's interest perked up again over the past two weeks following his reacquisition of his club's second round pick in the 2010 entry, which gave him enough for the compensation required (his own first, second and third round picks in 2010) were he to sign Kessel to an offer sheet.

Burke obviously preferred to trade rather than go the offer sheet route but it was clear by this move he was sending a not-so-subtle warning to Bruins GM Peter Chiareeli an offer sheet wasn't out of the question if a trade couldn't be worked out. 

The Nashville Predators also had serious interest in Kessel but according to reports the forward was more interested in going to Toronto. 

Burke is giving up some considerable value for Kessel, the 2007 Masterton Award winner for perseverance in overcoming testicular cancer and returning to action. Last season was a breakout performance for him, potting 36 goals and 60 points in 70 games with the Bruins. 

Kessel has obvious offensive skills, including speed and a quick shot, but the knock on him is he's a one-dimensional forward whose defensive game leaves much to be desired. 

Burke however needed to provide a boost to this offense heading into this season and in young Kessel he's got a proven 36-goal scorer who has the ability to do more and is still young enough that he has enough time to round out his game and become a more complete performer, something he should be able to do under Leafs coach Ron Wilson. 

The Bruins would've preferred to retain Kessel but had limited cap space going into this summer to do so. Chiarelli had set the bar for Kessel around $3.75 million, which was the amount teammate David Krejci re-signed for earlier this year. 

Kessel and his agent obviously believed he was worth more, and as we can see from what he got from the Leafs, it was considerably more than the Bruins could comfortably afford to pay. 

With only two weeks remaining until the start of the season the Bruins were running out of time to get Kessel under contract as it was quite possible the Leafs or another club might've pitched him an offer sheet that would've forced them to either match and then be forced to dump salary by moving other players to get under the cap in time for the start of the season or lose him and receive compensatory picks. 

With only $1.7 million in available cap space, receiving another player as part of the return wasn't an affordable option for Chiarelli, thus it was best to get the kind of return in draft picks he wanted, rather than the league-mandated return for not matching a Kessel offer sheet. 

In the short term this deal favors the Leafs as they get a young player who should prove to be a talented sniper over the next five years, although as more than a few Bruins fans have noted, he might find the goals a little tougher to come by this season without Marc Savard setting him up as he did in Boston. 

Still, Kessel is talented enough to develop into a reliable offensive talent for the Leafs. 

As for the Bruins, time will tell if those draft picks can turn into future stars.