Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel agreed with the club on a long-term 8-year $64 million extension on his contract just ahead of the team's Opening Night game against the Canadiens in Montreal Tuesday.
"Phil Kessel is one of the premier wingers and elite goal scorers in the National Hockey League today," said Maple Leafs general Manager Dave Nonis in a team release, according to CBS Sports. "He wanted to be a Maple Leaf long term and we're very pleased that Phil will be a part of our core group of players in Toronto until the 2021-22 season."
Really happy to be a Toronto maple leaf for the next 8 year.
— Phil Kessel (@PKessel81) October 1, 2013
Kessel has been one of the league's top goal scorers throughout the past five seasons. Kessel's 134 points accumulated over the past two seasons are behind just Tampa Bay's Steve Stamkos (154), Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin (142) and Philadelphia's Claude Giroux (141) while his 89 goals over the last three seasons are shy of just Stamkos (134), Anaheim's Corey Perry (102) and Washington's Alex Ovechkin (102).
Kessel, who turns 27 Wednesday, was due to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and said he wouldn't be negotiating a contract during the season, and the Leafs were able to work something out just shy of puck drop in Montreal Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs were able to avoid having to enter a bidding war with other teams over his services by locking him up for the long-term.
In the 48-game lockout-shortened season in 2013, Kessel notched 20 goals and 32 assists for 52 points. He's reached the 30-goal plateau in four consecutive full-length seasons between 2008-09-2011-12, and has shown his knack for goal scoring ability throughout his time with the Leafs.
The Leafs acquired Kessel from Boston prior to the 2009-10 season in exchange for two first-round draft picks, Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton.
The Leafs enter the season trying to erase a painful memory handed to them by those same Bruins, when Toronto forced a Game 7 in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year after falling behind in the series 3-1. It looked as though Toronto was about to seal the game and an epic series comeback when it entered the third period with a three-goal lead, but the team ended up squandering the lead by giving up three third period goals--including two goals within the closing two minutes as the Bruins staged a historic comeback of their own to tie it up.
Boston eventually eliminated Toronto with an overtime Game 7-clinching goal, and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals while the Leafs were sent packing and had a long wait until next year. For the Leafs, next year finally arrives tonight.
Toronto is set on erasing that painful memory when it hits the ice Tuesday night in Montreal, and look to expand on a pretty successful 2013 campaign that saw the team go 26-17-5 with 57 points and notch the fifth seed in the postseason.
Kessel looks to be a big piece of the Leafs offense for the next eight years and it will be interesting to see how signing that contract extension factors into his motivation for Opening Night.
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