Vegas Golden Knights forward Phil Kessel has officially broken the NHL’s iron man record after playing his 990th game in a row on October 25th against the San Jose Sharks. The record had previously been held by Keith Yandle, who broke the record on January 25th, 2022, before ending the streak at 989 games on April 2nd when he got scratched by then Flyers head coach Mike Yeo. Yandle would go on to retire during the offseason. Kessel’s iron man streak has been in the making for almost thirteen years, dating all the way back to November 3rd, 2009, when he made his debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The streak spans all his time with the Maple Leafs, along with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Arizona Coyotes, and Vegas Golden Knights.

Kessel began his career when he was drafted fifth overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins. During his rookie year, Kessel’s family announced in 2006 that he was in the hospital with what turned out to be a form of testicular cancer. He was announced as cancer-free on December 16th of that year and at the end of the season, he was voted as Boston’s nominee for the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy, which he ended up winning at the 2007 NHL Awards for surviving his battle with cancer.

Kessel’s time with Boston came to an end on September 18th, 2009, when he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who signed him to a five-year contract worth $27 million. He was an integral part of Toronto’s team throughout his entire time there but as the team really started to decline, it became clear Toronto needed to enter a rebuilding phase that would require them to get rid of Kessel if they really wanted to rebuild. On July 15th, 2015, Kessel was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a monster deal that included six players, three draft picks, and Toronto retaining $1.2 million of Kessel’s salary. Kessel’s time with the Penguins was met with immediate success as they ended his first season as the 2016 Stanley Cup Champions beating the San Jose Sharks in the final. That was Kessel’s first Stanley Cup win, and he would win his second just a year later when Pittsburgh would repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 2017.

On June 29th, 2019, Pittsburgh would decide to move on from Kessel and trade him to the Arizona Coyotes. Kessel would stay in Arizona until the 2022 offseason when his contract ran up and he entered free agency. He signed a one-year contract worth $1.5 million with the Vegas Golden Knights.

With his ironman streak currently sitting at 991 games, Phil Kessel not only holds the record for most consecutive games played but is also only nine games away from playing an insane 1,000 games in a row.