Phil Kessel signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old forward was an unrestricted free agent. He had 52 points (eight goals, 44 assists) in 82 games for the Arizona Coyotes last season.
Selected by the Boston Bruins with the No. 5 pick in the 2006 NHL Draft, Kessel has 956 points (399 goals, 557 assists) in 1,204 regular-season games for the Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Bruins. He has 81 points (34 goals, 47 assists) in 96 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“He’s going to help some NHL team because he can still add points, he can add to a power play and his experience going into the playoffs and what he can offer,” Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong told Sirius XM NHL Radio on Aug. 6. “He still has value in the NHL and I think at some point in time a team will sign him and get him in uniform because he’s got some great experience and he’s still got great legs under him. He’s going to help somebody.”
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Kessel won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. He had 45 points (18 goals, 27 assists) in 49 playoff games during those two seasons.
“I didn’t know him before I came to Arizona (on Sept. 17, 2020) but I loved him, I loved his personality,” Armstrong said. “The young guys on our team were just absolutely drawn to him. He’s somebody who has won a few Cups. He’s a funny guy, a unique guy in the way he approaches his life. But we loved him.
“He was someone who produced for us too in both the years we had him. He was really, really good. The one thing about Phil is he can skate. Sometimes when you get older your legs go, but he can absolutely still fly and create a ton of speed. He’s probably one of the smartest people I’ve seen around the puck and knowing where the puck is going to go.”
Kessel has played 982 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in NHL history behind Keith Yandle (989), whose streak ended last season when he was a healthy scratch by the Philadelphia Flyers. Kessel has not missed a game in the past 12 seasons and left a 9-2 win at the Detroit Red Wings on March 8 after one shift to fly back to Phoenix to be with his wife for the birth of their child. It was his 956th consecutive game played.
“Phil wanted to play the whole game,” Armstrong said. “We had talked to the doctors and his wife and got a feel for it. We thought let’s keep the streak alive and our owner (Alex Meruelo) said we’ll take care of him, get him a private plane and get him back there. . It was everybody on the staff, but at the end of the day it’s our owner stepping up and making sure he takes care of the players.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Dave McCarthy contributed to this report
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