Quiet by nature, Kessel has made a lot of noise throughout his career as a pure goal-scorer.
From USA Hockey's National Team Development Program to the University of Minnesota and the NHL, Kessel has always been a scorer.
Quiet by nature, Kessel has made a lot of noise throughout his career as a pure goal-scorer.
From USA Hockey's National Team Development Program to the University of Minnesota and the NHL, Kessel has always been a scorer.
That scoring prowess put his name on the map in Kessel's first season with the national team program's Under-17 team in 2003-04, when he set a program record for a U-17 player with 52 goals and 82 points. The next season Kessel moved up to the Under-18 program and again set a program record with 52 goals and 98 points.
Kessel headed to the University of Minnesota in 2005-06 and as a true freshman was named Western Collegiate Hockey Association Rookie of the Year after an 18-goal, 33-assist season. Following his freshman year, Kessel was selected by the Boston Bruins with the No. 5 pick in the 2006 NHL Draft, signing his first pro contract a short time later while forgoing his final three years of college eligibility.
But 27 games into his rookie season, Kessel was diagnosed with a rare form of testicular cancer and had surgery on Dec. 11, 2006. He was declared cancer free five days later. After playing in conditioning games in the American Hockey League he returned to the Bruins lineup Jan. 9, 2007. At the end of the season Kessel was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Kessel would spend three seasons with Boston, scoring 37 goals in his third season, before the Bruins traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sept. 18, 2009. In six seasons with the Maple Leafs, Kessel led Toronto in goals five times, scoring at least 30 goals four times. He had 181 goals and 394 points in 446 games with the Leafs before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1, 2015.
With the Penguins, Kessel helped form one of the top lines in the league for the second half of the 2015-16 season - the "HBK Line" - with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino. The trio helped lead the Penguins to the Stanley Cup. Kessel finished tied for third in the NHL with 10 playoff goals and fourth in scoring with 22 points.
Kessel has also starred internationally, including at the 2005 World Under-18 Championship, where he helped the United States win gold by scoring nine goals and 16 points in six games. He won silver medals at the 2010 Olympics and 2004 Under-18 Championship.
