Yesterday, we saw former Leaf sniper Phil Kessel sign a one year deal worth $1.5 million with the Vegas Golden Knights. Today, he took a shot at his most recent former team, the Arizona Coyotes.
Kessel told the media today that "it's going to be nice playing for a team that actually wants to win." And in fairness, Phil has a point. The Coyotes are in the midst of what feels like an endless rebuild, and are often the first team you think of when you think about dumping bad contracts with large cap hits and limited real dollars owed on them.
The Coyotes have only made the playoffs once in the past ten years, and that was during the 2020 covid bubble playoffs when we saw an unprecedented «play in» round, where an additional eight teams league wide made the playoffs. If the playoff format was not changed, the Coyotes would have been on on the outside looking in.
As for Kessel, he is coming off a 52 point season, which was good for third in scoring on the Yotes. However, the 34-year-old scored a career low 8 goals last season, surprising for a player who has relied heavily on his shot throughout his career. Perhaps with a new team and better players around him Kessel can prove he can still contribute in the NHL in a more secondary role.
