From Madison, Wisconsin, Phil Kessel had a very successful career in the NHL, where he became the league’s “Iron Man”, setting a record for consecutive games played with 1,064.  As impressive as that accomplishment is, the other former players who had achieved that record over the previous decades were not the scorer that Kessel was.

Kessel was the 2006 WCHA Rookie of the Year in his lone year at the University of Minnesota, and the Boston Bruins were impressed enough to draft him with the fifth pick of that year’s draft.  The Right Wing made the team quickly, but suffered a setback immediately when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.   He would beat it, and as a rookie, he won the Bill Masterton Trophy.  Kessel played two more years in Boston and was a player on the rise, but that would take place elsewhere.  The Toronto Maple Leafs traded two first-round and one second-round pick for Kessel before the 2009-10 Season began.

Kessel was a top scorer in Toronto, going to three All-Star Games and posting four 30-Goal seasons.  Despite this, the Leaf fans turned on Kessel due to a perceived bad attitude and poor diet.  In the hockey-mad city of Toronto, Kessel became the scapegoat for the Leafs' failures.  He was traded to Pittsburgh in 2015 and played a significant role in the Penguins' back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, and in the latter win, he mocked his own poor diet by filling the Cup with hot dogs, which he then proceeded to eat.  He would later have his best season in hockey, posting a career-best 92 Points in 2017-18, and in 2018-19, he led the NHL in Game-Winning Goals with 10.

He continued to play a few more seasons, but his skills began to decline.  In his final NHL campaign, Kessel won his third Stanley Cup as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Although he was a proven scorer with the Maple Leafs, he was not a fan-favorite in Toronto. As the Leafs were looking to rebuild anyway, Kessel was shopped around in the summer of 2015.  They found a taker in Pittsburgh, and it turned out to be one of the smartest transactions that the Penguins ever made.