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While most fans are currently glued to the Olympics, I figured it would be a good time to write a piece on Phil Kessel given his recent strong play with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Since being acquired from the Boston Bruins in 2009, Kessel has been the center of discussion with respect to the Leafs organization. That said, one of the biggest conversations held against Kessel has been whether or not he possesses the skillset to be more than a 35 goals per year player.
Where the debate often circles is around the fact that many fans still consider Phil to be a rather one dimensional type player and further, one that will not likely surpass his best season of 37 goals without a star centerman. For those of you who follow each week, I wrote a blog about the importance of Kessel’s current centerman, Tyler Bozak.
As the blog made mentioned to, Bozak has been slowly gaining the respect of fans and coaches league wide as he proves able to compete as a first line centerman. Without Bozak in the lineup, not only does Kessel’s overall production drop, but so does the overall team production. That said, Phil Kessel currently has a centerman who we can perhaps finally state raises his offensive output.
As things stand, Kessel is currently on a rather hot streak as the forward has registered 10 points in his last five games played. With his recent streak, he has now registered a total of 65 points for the year in just 60 games. With that established, if Kessel is able to maintain this current points per game pace, he will end the year with 88 points and 42 goals.
That’s right folks, Kessel may finally reach 40 or more goals in one season and no longer be labeled as “the best 40 goal scorer to never reach 40 goals”. To put this further into perspective, the Leafs have not had a player on their roster to achieve 40 or more goals in one season since 2002 with Mats Sundin.
While there are still 22 games left in the season and plenty of time to go on an infamous “goal scoring drought” as we have seen from Kessel in recent years, I am not so sure that there will be much of that as the year comes to a close.
My reasoning here is that I personally feel that Phil’s game has really matured over the past two seasons. I would even go so far as to call him a much more complete player as the forward now skates hard to back-check and has been much more responsible in his own end.
“I think with Phil, he’s been classified as this one type of player, and we think that he’s got more of an all-around ability too,” head coach Randy Carlyle said after the game. “He can distribute the puck, he can pass the puck and he can find people. He can do a lot more things than just shoot.”
That said, Kessel is still considered young at 26 and is not exactly what I would call a “package player”. Where his game lacks continues to be in the physical areas, despite having dropped the gloves once or twice this year. Not known to be a big hitter or fighter, Kessel has been labeled as a goal scorer who has great wheels.
I have a feeling that most fans have no issue with the above statement, as Phil has been an integral part of the Leafs success this year and if he continues on pace, not only will he achieve some personal bests, but he will help solidify his team’s chances of playoffs.
What do you think? Is Kessel turning into the player that Brian Burke ultimately thought he could be when he traded two first round picks in order to acquire him, or is what we have seen of the speedy forward all that should be expected moving forward?
Thanks for reading!
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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