I The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ The history of the organization has a lot of good players, and we decided to pass the best Penguins players to wear each jersey number. Today, we continue the list by naming the #81 best in Penguins history.
Only two players in franchise history have worn #81, including Miroslav Satan, who was a great NHL player himself and registered 17 goals and 36 points in 65 games with the Penguins.
But there was another #81 who became a cult hero during back-to-back Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017.
That cult hero? Forward Phil Kessel.
Kessel was nominated for fifth place by Boston Bruins in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. He spent his first three NHL seasons there before being traded Toronto Maple Leafs on September 18, 2009 with two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
He spent the next five seasons in Toronto, becoming one of the league’s top scorers. That pedigree is what led then-Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford to trade him in the summer of 2015.
Kessel had his best seasons in Pittsburgh — including his career-best season of 34 goals and 92 points in 2017-18 — but most of his signature moments came during the Cup run.
One of them came when he scored two goals against each other the Washington Capitals in 2016, when the Penguins won Game 6 and swept the second-round series:
Kessel was also part of the iconic HBK Line – along with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino – that stayed together throughout that playoff run and provided many memorable moments for the Penguins. During the 2016 playoffs, Kessel posted 10 goals and 22 points in 24 games and won his first Stanley Cup.
He was also a key part of their run in 2017, recording eight goals and 23 points in 25 games, mostly alongside Evgeni Malkin on the second line:
Kessel spent four seasons with the Penguins, registering 110 goals and 303 points in 328 regular season games. He was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in the summer of 2019, and spent three seasons there before spending his final NHL season (so far) with the. the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022-23, when he won his third Stanley Cup.
During his NHL career, Kessel recorded 413 goals and 992 points in 1,286 games.
