LAS VEGAS — In perhaps the most appropriate marriage of player and team in the history of free agency, the Vegas Golden Knights bolstered their forward depth by signing veteran Phil Kessel to a one-year, $1.5 million deal Wednesday.
The 34-year-old Kessel spent the past three seasons with the Arizona Coyotes. The two-time Stanley Cup champion has 399 goals and 557 assists in 1,204 career games with Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Arizona.
He is also known as an avid poker player, which is why the pairing with Vegas makes so much sense.
Kessel has appeared in 982 consecutive NHL games, the longest active streak, and is seven away from tying Keith Yandle’s league record of 989.
Last season, Kessel had a career-worst eight goals along with 44 assists. It was the last season on an eight-year, $64 million contract he signed with Toronto in 2014.
He’s a goal away from becoming the 13th American-born player to score 400 NHL goals.
Kessel had 110 of his goals and 303 of his points in 328 games with the Penguins from 2015-19. He had 45 points in 49 playoff games as the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016-17.
