You may not have noticed or even forgotten, but Phil Kessel is part of the Vegas Golden Knights organization. After playing the 82 regular season games for the team as well as the first 4 playoff games, he was benched by head coach Bruce Cassidy, upon William Carrier's return.
In 82 games this year, the 35-year-old player scored 14 goals and 22 assists. His 36 points were the lowest of his career since his rookie season in 2006-07. He added 2 points, in his four appearances in the current playoffs.
Kessel knows what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. He won it twice during his stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. A possible conquest of the Cup by the Golden Knights would therefore put his name on the holy grail of hockey for the third time.
Kessel, who holds the record for the most consecutive games played (1,064), will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. It will be interesting to see if a team will offer him a contract so that he can extend his record by a few games...
