| File:Phil Kessel and Bruins.jpg | |
| Position | Right wing/center |
| Shoots | Right |
| Height Weight |
6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 195 lb (89 kg) |
| NHL Team | Boston Bruins |
| Nationality | USA |
| Born | October 2 1987 , Madison, WI, US |
| NHL Draft | 5th overall, 2006 Boston Bruins |
| Pro Career | 2006 – present |
Philip Joseph Kessel, Jr. (born October 2, 1987, Madison, Wisconsin) is an American professional ice hockey forward for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. Kessel is a product of USA Hockey's National Development Team and became that program's all-time leader for goals and points in his final 2004–05 year. Kessel finished his junior career by playing collegiate hockey for the University of Minnesota in the WCHA. He was the fifth-overall pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, taken by the Bruins. In his rookie 2006–07 NHL season he was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
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Kessel had an outstanding 2004–05 junior season, one in which many NHL scouts ranked him as a prospect comparable to Sidney Crosby[1] (and one of The Next Ones[2]). Born in October, Kessel missed the 2005 NHL Entry Draft cutoff by only one month. However, in 2005–06, Kessel experienced several setbacks that hurt his ranking as a prospect. Considered the most talented player on the favored United States team in the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he scored only one goal and the team finished in fourth. His college performance was less spectacular than expected; by season's end he was playing third-line minutes for a loaded Minnesota Golden Gophers squad, though he did score 18 goals and finish with 51 total points, a solid season for a freshman forward. Future Boston Bruin forward Blake Wheeler was a teammate of Kessel at the University of Minnesota, during the 2005–06 collegiate ice hockey season.
Kessel was still viewed highly enough that he was drafted 5th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins. Prior to the draft he dropped in ranking from first to second place among the North American skaters and in the final ranking he was ranked fifth among the North American skaters.
On August 17, 2006, the Bruins announced that Phil signed a multi-year entry-level contract, reportedly worth the rookie maximum of $850,000.
On December 11, 2006, his family announced that Kessel was hospitalized for a reason unrelated to hockey. Later during the day, Bob Lobel, a sportscaster in the region of Boston, confirmed that Phil was diagnosed with a form of testicular cancer.[3]
On December 16, 2006, Phil was announced cancer-free. On January 5, 2007, he was assigned to Providence for conditioning purposes[4] and then recalled on January 7. Kessel returned to the Bruins line-up on January 9, against the Ottawa Senators, after missing only 11 regular season games following cancer surgery.
Phil was named to the 2007 NHL YoungStars game which took place in Dallas, Texas on January 23, 2007. He recorded a hat trick (including a unique powerplay with a game winning goal) and an assist during this game in a 9-8 Eastern Conference victory.[5]
While Phil was not among top rookies in goals or assists, he became second among rookies with four shootout goals (4 of 7). Each goal was a game-deciding one that brought his team a win.
On March 31, 2007, Boston Herald's author Stephen Harris reported that Phil Kessel was voted by Boston writers as the team's candidate for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey).[6] Later, on June 14, at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, NHL announced that Phil had been officially selected as the recipient of the 2007 Masterton award.
His first shootout goal of the 2007–08 NHL season came on October 20, 2007, playing in Boston against the New York Rangers, and was the only goal scored in that game. He repeated that feat against the Rangers in Boston on January 19, 2008, as a game-winning shootout goal. Once again, on February 8, 2008, Kessel scored the only shootout goal in an "away" game against the Buffalo Sabres, winning the game with a 3-2 "come-from-behind" score for the Bruins.
To start the Bruins' 2008–09 NHL season, Phil scored the very first Bruins goal of the season on October 9, 2008, playing against the Colorado Avalanche during the first period of the Colorado team's home opener, that resulted in a 5-4 defeat for the Avalanche. Kessel closed out the regular season on a high note, scoring his second career hat trick in the April 12, 2009 6-2 visitors' victory against the New York Islanders[7], and amassing the highest number of NHL regular season goals so far in his young career with 36, the most on the Bruins team for the season.
After the defeat of the Bruins in the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals series by the Carolina Hurricanes, it was reported that Kessel would need off-season shoulder surgery, most likely caused during the March 10, 2009 2-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The surgery was successfully performed[8] on May 21, 2009, with recuperation from the surgery possibly causing Kessel to miss the start of the 2009-2010 NHL season.[9]
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | ||
| 2001–02 | Madison Capitols | Bantam AAA | 86 | 176 | 110 | 286 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2002–03 | Madison Capitols | Midget AAA | 71 | 113 | 45 | 158 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2003–04 | Development Program U17 | NAHL | 62 | 52 | 30 | 82 | — | 26 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2004–05 | Development Program U18 | NAHL | 47 | 52 | 46 | 98 | — | 35 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2005–06 | Minnesota Golden Gophers | WCHA | 39 | 18 | 33 | 51 | +22 | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2006–07 | Providence Bruins | AHL | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2006–07 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 70 | 11 | 18 | 29 | −12 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2007–08 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 82 | 19 | 18 | 37 | −6 | 28 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | +1 | 2 | ||
| 2008–09 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 70 | 36 | 24 | 60 | 23 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 11 | +7 | 4 | ||
| NHL totals | 222 | 66 | 60 | 126 | 5 | 56 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 8 | 6 | ||||
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| World Junior Ice Hockey U18 Championships | ||
| Silver | 2004 | USA |
| Gold | 2005 | USA |
Played for the United States in:
Also played for the United States in:
Participated in two U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camps (2005, 2006)
| Year | Team | Event | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | United States | WJC18 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 2nd |
| 2005 | United States | WJC | 7 | 4 | 2 | 6 | -1 | 2 | 4th |
| 2005 | United States | WJC18 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 1st |
| 2006 | United States | WJC | 7 | 1 | 10 | 11 | E | 2 | 4th |
| 2006 | United States | WC | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7th |
| 2007 | United States | WC | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 5th |
| 2008 | United States | WC | 7 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 6th |
| USA totals | 47 | 30 | 32 | 62 | 19 | 26 | |||
| Preceded by Teemu Selanne |
Winner of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy 2006–07 |
Succeeded by Jason Blake |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Phil Kessel. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
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