With the dust barely having settled on Phil Kessel and his brand new deal in Vegas, Sportsnet's official Tim and Friends Twitter account pointed out something very interesting about Kessel and his iron man streak.
Kessel is just 7 games away from tying the NHL's all-time iron man streak, set by Keith Yandle this past season. The kicker? If he plays the first 7 games of the season, Kessel can tie the record against his former team - the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game is set to take place on October 24th in Vegas
Kessel hasn't missed a game since the 2009-10 season. That's 12 consecutive seasons without missing a single game. It's difficult to imagine a scenario in while Kessel doesn't tie the record against the Leafs in Vegas in October and, if all goes well, he'll have an opportunity to break the record against the San Jose Sharks just one night later, on October 25th in San Jose.
The Madison, WI native played 6 seasons with the Leafs from 2009-2015 before being shipped off to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the deal that brought back Nick Spaling, Kasperi Kapanen, Scott Harrington, plus first- and third-round picks in 2016. The 2016 first rounder was flipped and packaged in the deal that brought netminder Frederik Andersen to Toronto.
In 1,204 career regular season games, Kessel has amassed 956 career points. He has also racked up 81 points in 96 playoff games.
