The Phenomenon That Is Phil Kessel
Let's see now: This guy is 26 years old and should therefore be right in the prime of his career.
Dave Nonis recently gave him a $64 MILLION contract for EIGHT YEARS! It's pretty clear that Dave Nonis thinks Phil is something special.
Then again, Nonis is the GM of the toronto maple leafs - and leaf GMs are not exactly known for brilliance...which might explain the 46 YEARS of complete and utter failure that the franchise has suffered.
Now, let's look at the REAL FACTS behind a guy who is PAID like a superstar but sure as hell doesn't PLAY like a superstar.
Going into this season, Phil had played 504 regular season games, during which he had scored 185 goals and 194 assists, for a total of 379 points. Now, 379 points in 504 games would be good totals for a defenseman, and would be acceptable totals for a forward who actually did things like backchecking, hitting, taking faceoffs, blocking shots, being a team leader, etc. Unfortunately, Phil does NONE of those things. He's a one-trick pony who is "good" ONLY at offense...except, as the STATISTICS show, he's really not THAT good EVEN at offense! By the way, going into this season, Phil was a wretched MINUS 36 on his career.
This guy, who is PAID like a superstar, is currently tied for 31st through 37th in the scoring race, with 21 points in 24 games. Yes fans, this "offensive superstar" is AGAIN below a point a game even on THIS season.
By the way, in the embarrassing blowout the leafs suffered at the hands of the 26th place Columbus Blue Jackets, Phil had ZERO points (duh...like his entire team, since his ENTIRE TEAM was shut out!), and was a MINUS TWO.
Great signing, Mr. Nonis - just like your OTHER multi-year, multimillion dollar contract to David Clarkson, who is now burning up the league with an amazing two goals after a quarter of the season has passed.
We don't wish to embarrass Mr. Nonis, so we won't even mention the Tyler Bozak joke, and we won't remind anyone that Mr. Nonis BOUGHT OUT (ha ha ha!!!) Mikhail Grabovski, who is a far, far better player than almost everyone on the leaf roster (and, trust me, I'm being VERY generous by saying "almost everyone")!