Phil Kessel was the Pittsburgh Penguins' No. 1 target all along.

But veteran GM Jim Rutherford had to play his cards carefully with the Toronto Maple Leafs so that the deal fell right.

For starters, the Penguins didn’t lose what they felt were their Grade A prospects in the package sent back to Toronto.

Secondly, and more importantly, was Toronto's agreeing to retain some of Kessel's salary, an idea that the Leafs had fought for a long time. Toronto retained 15 percent of Kessel’s annual salary, and the perennial 35-goal scorer looks a lot better on your roster at $6.75 million per year than $8 million, that’s for sure.

And, no offense to Tyler Bozak, but playing with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin will bring out even more out of the shoot-first Kessel. Crosby told me via email on Wednesday that he was thrilled -- to say the least -- to get Kessel on his team.

But as conversations with the Leafs ran hot-and-cold the past few weeks, Pittsburgh tried elsewhere. The Pens took a stab at Ryan O’Reilly last week before the Colorado Avalanche shipped him to the Buffalo Sabres, kicked the tires on Jeff Skinner and Patrick Sharp at the draft, and went hard at Brandon Saad on Tuesday before he was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Leafs knew this, and that’s what made Toronto nervous to a degree: the possibility of losing their one and only trade partner for Kessel if Pittsburgh landed another top-six winger instead.

Other than the Calgary Flames dabbling a little, the Leafs had no other real options. It was Pittsburgh or bust. From that perspective, whether the prospects in the deal pan out or not, the Leafs probably did as well as they could given the circumstances.

In the end, Kessel is the guy Rutherford wanted. He made one heck of a trade to get the forward. Other GMs around the league complimented Pittsburgh on the deal. The Penguins are about winning now, and they just improved their chances big-time.

Could the Leafs have waited until the trade deadline next March in the hope that new coach Mike Babcock would improve Kessel as an asset? Maybe, but I think Leafs president Brendan Shanahan felt it was time to change the culture, and that started with Kessel.

Fair or not -- and I personally feel Kessel probably received too much blame for what has gone wrong with the Leafs -- the new regime in Toronto wants to build a foundation that’s about work ethic and culture, and having your highest-paid player show up to camp out of shape last year just isn’t something the Leafs’ brass was going to live with again.

I think Kessel will have a monster year in Pittsburgh next season, but I don’t think Toronto will regret its decision to move him. Both teams got what they wanted out of this trade.