Phil Kessel has come to Vancouver. He’s here to try out for the coaching staff and management and maybe – maybe – sign a contract.
Phil Kessel lands, Rumours Launch
Despite being an occasional healthy scratch in his last stop, the 36-year-old winger knows he can do more. And he’s willing to take any role a team offers to prove it.
Often, when a player has reached top-line status in the NHL – with Stanley Cup rings to go with it – they’re reluctant to move down again. Some retire at the top and some find worse teams and cling to their minutes. For Kessel, dropping to the fourth line of a loaded Golden Knights squad was worth it. His one-year, $1.5 million deal kept him on the ice and contributing full value.
He only got into four playoff games with Vegas, but those four games got him a third ring. That’s a long way from his role on a deadly second line that helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win in back-to-back years. But it does tell you his willingness to earn his place without complaint or drama.
Including last season, Kessel has scored 34 goals and 83 points in 100 playoff games. And make no mistake, anything the Canucks do from here on is all about the playoffs. If they suspect he’ll be able to contribute to success in the second season, they’ll find a place for him.
Both President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford and coach Rick Tocchet are familiar with Kessel. The former had him as a player in Pittsburgh, and the latter was head coach during his Arizona Coyotes tenure. Tocchet, for what it’s worth, wouldn’t mind coaching Kessel once again.
“There’s value in Phil,” Tocchet said. “I think he can still play, 100 percent.”
But it might not be as easy as putting signatures on paper.
“But What About The -?”
Phil Kessel wasn’t a slouch during the rest of the year, either. He played the full season – again – averaging less than 13 minutes of ice time per night. In that limited time, he scored 14 goals with 22 assists. Just two goals and seven assists were on the power play, so he wasn’t just a special teams contributor.
There is some concern that Kessel might not be able to step onto the ice and find his NHL pace immediately. That’s not entirely unjustified, either. After all, his last competitive game was April 24th, and pro sports isn’t exactly forgiving to older players. A nearly year-long absence is a lot to catch up to.
That’s why he is trying out with the Abbotsford Canucks this week. He isn’t officially joining the team there, just being closer by for the Vancouver Canucks to get a look at him. He has kept himself in shape, but there is a vast gulf between that and team workouts.
Let’s have a closer look at what the team and fans are watching out for.
Gone Streaking
The current Ironman, Phil Kessel has played 1,064 consecutive NHL games. Playoff games aren’t considered for the record, so his healthy scratches there don’t count. There is some consternation around streaking players having their streaks stopped whether it’s from players or fans.
The consecutive game streak became enough of a story around Keith Yandle that a planned healthy scratch was reversed. That almost certainly led to him being bought out by the team rather than becoming known as The Ones Who Ended The Streak. It got messy.
But Kessel has let it be known he has no issue with the record coming to an end, letting teams know before free agency opened in July.
“Hot Dogs! Hot Dogs Everywhere!”
Rumours of Kessel’s physical condition are wildly exaggerated. Mostly, he doesn’t fit in the typical image of a “cut” athlete, and his evasive playing style doesn’t help. But anyone who thinks he’s a pushover isn’t familiar with what strong people look like. Athletes don’t – CAN’T – play over 1,000 consecutive games without being in excellent physical condition. Especially not one who is as dangerous to leave alone as Kessel is.
But the hot dog thing comes from somewhere, and every team wishes they had a player who inspired the meme. If you win the Stanley Cup, you can eat whatever you want from it. While it’s fun to talk smack about players, he has more than enough hardware not to listen.
Getting Fit In
It could be a bit tricky wedging Phil Kessel into the Vancouver Canucks lineup right now. The team is performing great, obviously. You can’t sit at the top of league standings this late into the year and not have some kind of chemistry. So who does he supplant?
A bottom-six role, at least to start, would seem to make the most sense. Given the third line’s cohesion, breaking them up is well-neigh unthinkable.* The fourth line has some mobility to it, especially now that Nils Höglander is making another push for top-six minutes. He’s doing this at Ilya Mikheyev‘s expense, who despite not showing up on the scoresheet is still sound defensively.
The most frequent trio at the bottom of the lineup has been Höglander – Nils Åman – Sam Lafferty. Swap Mikheyev and Höglander and there is plenty of speed, defensive acumen, and physical play present. Lafferty can play centre, though it’s not his strongest position. Kessel is a decent skater, though not as good as Mikheyev. So perhaps Åman is the odd one out, here.
The problem is that Åman is very good at one of Vancouver’s weakest positions – penalty killing. It’s difficult to brag about having the 15th-best PK in the league, but given where the team was? Mediocre is a goal they strove for, and gosh darn it, they made it! Joking aside, removing weaknesses has improved the team as much as increasing strengths this season.
Kessel is likely to pick up some power play time as well, but details will need to be worked out. Especially if the team keeps that third line together as an entire second forward unit, which is well worth a try.
Phil Cap-ssel
Even trickier is what to do with the player Kessel replaces. Carson Soucy was shuffled over to the injured reserve roster to make room for Jett Woo coming up from Abbotsford. The move was retroactive to Soucy’s in January, so he can rejoin the team whenever he’s healthy. Nikita Zadorov is coming back from suspension, so Woo is being sent back down this week.
That’s going to keep the roster at 23 players. Adding Kessel means someone is getting bumped, and not just to the press box. Someone will need to go to Abbotsford, and that means clearing waivers. The Canucks don’t have anyone on the team right now who is waiver-exempt. There is going to be great reluctance to place right-handed defenceman Mark Friedman on waivers because he’s, well, an NHL-level right-handed defenceman.
As mentioned, whatever moves the team makes from here on are going to be all about the playoffs. And the NHL playoffs are notorious for their attrition rate. Losing defencemen when they aren’t forced to isn’t something any team wants to do. And teams who are serious about a Stanley Cup run load up, not swap out.
After the March 8th trade deadline, team rosters open up beyond 23, but the cap limit remains. It looks like the Canucks want to add well before then, whether that addition includes Phil Kessel or not. And that means it’s very likely someone else is heading out.
*since they don’t seem to like line names, it seems to have defaulted to “THE Third Line.” Which is awesome.
Main Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
