This past week, 34-year-old former Leaf Phil Kessel signed a one-year deal with the Vegas Golden Knights worth $1.5M. Following his departure from Arizona, Kessel appeared to take a bit of a parting shot at his former team, publicly stating that it will be nice to play for a team who wants to win.
Make no mistake about it - from a pure offensive perspective, Kessel is one of the best players of his era. From an overall, 200-foot game perspective, Phil leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, you don't have to tell us as Leafs fans.. we lived it, not unlike how we are with our own William Nylander now. Supremely talented when the puck is on his stick, frustrating to watch when it's not.
It's not just us as fans who give mixed reviews on players like Kessel and Nylander. Their teammates, coaches and the like will all have similar things to say. With respect to Kessel, former Leafs employee Jack Han has asked several of Kessel's teammate's what it's like to play with him. Here are some of the responses he's received.
I'm sure that the Golden Knights have done their due diligence with Kessel, so they're aware of what they're getting. If Kessel is playing with at least one defensively responsible line mate, perhaps some of his inconsistencies will be less exposed. We know that he can still very much hang offensively, as is evidenced by the 52 points he scored last season in 82 games as a 34-year-old. He's also very durable and holds the league's longest running active iron-man streak. He is just games shy of tying Keith Yandle's all-time record and 8 games shy of breaking it. He'll also have a chance to play in his 1,000th consecutive game against his former Arizona Coyotes on November 17th in Vegas.
