How Phil Kessel became a Maple Leaf, and what went wrong
Phil Kessel played his 990th consecutive game this week. He was signed by Toronto Maple Leaf management group in 2009. Brian Burke and Dave Nonis wanted to sign a young star. They wanted star power for the Toronto market. Phil was a scoring prodigy out of Madison, Wisconsin. He played college hockey for Notre Dame. His name brings back memories for Brian. Burke had been in Vancouver when Pavel Bure rocketed into town in 1991 and transformed the Canucks into Cup contenders. Dave had drafted Chris Pronger and drafted the Sedin twins. Luke Schenn and Nazem Kadri were recent draft picks.
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