Toronto Maple Leafs
Ex-Maple Leafs’ Phil Kessel Signs in Vegas: 1 Year, $1.5 Million
Ex-Toronto Maple Leafs’ player Phil Kessel just signed with the Vegas Golden Knights. What’s Kessel’s history in the NHL?
The Phil Kessel watch is over. Earlier this evening, the Vegas Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon announced that the team had signed enigmatic forward Phil Kessel to a one-year contract for the sum of $1.5 million per season.
Interestingly, after coming off the last year of an $8 million contract, fans are almost as interested to see both if Kessel would be picked up and, if he were, how much would his contract be. Today, we found out that there’s a market for a scoring forward, even closing in on the twilight of a successful career.
Kessel isn’t what he used to be, but goals and assists both count the same as when Kessel started with the Boston Bruins in the 2006-07 season. And, over the past 16 seasons – until 2021-22 – Kessel had always put up double-digit goals. That’s quite an accomplishment.
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A Bit About Kessel’s History
Kessel was chosen by the Bruins during the first round (5th overall) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Throughout his career he’s played in 982 NHL games; and, what’s just as interesting is that the last season he missed a game was when he was with the Maple Leafs in 2012-13. His current streak of 982 games in a row is now the second-longest active streak in the NBA. He’s seven games away from tying Keith Yandle’s all-time record of 989 games in a row.
During the course of his career, the 34-year-old Kessel has played 16 seasons – first with the Boston Bruins (2006-09), then with the Toronto Maple Leafs (2009-15), third with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2015-19), and last with the Arizona Coyotes (2019-22). Although he only scored eight goals last season with the Coyotes, he did lead the team with 44 assists. That was his highest total since the 2018-19 season in Pittsburgh.
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Kessel’s Career Accomplishments
During his time with the Penguins, Kessel helped that team win two Stanley Cups (in 2015-16 and 2016-17). During his career, Kessel has accumulated 956 points (399 goals and 557 assists) in 1,204 career NHL games.
Kessel now ranks high among all players who appeared in 2021-22 in two categories: first, he ranks eighth in career games played; and, second, he ranks 10th in career points. He’s only a single goal away from being only the 13th US-born player to score 400 NHL goals.
Good Luck to Kessel This Season
With the Golden Knights tight up against the salary cap’s upper limit, Kessel comes at a price the team can afford. Who’s going to bet against the NHL veteran not having a solid season with his new club?
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