Is Kessel the next Alexander Daigle?

Here is an interesting article on former Gopher Phil Kessel. I know from reading the message boards and blogs last season there are a few Boston Bruin's fans that are getting impatient with Phil Kessel. I wish the fans would give this kid a break, While Kessel is an amazing talent, lets be realistic playing in the NHL level is a whole different ball game. Playing in the NHL is a lot different than playing in Juniors or college. Think about this, realistically speaking Kessel could be entering his his senior year of college with the Golden Gophers if he wasn't playing in the NHL.

It's the next nine months, Phil Kessel’s career is on the line.

It was once believed that Kessel would be one of the greatest American-born hockey players to ever play. He shattered the scoring records for the National Developmental program as a 17 and 18-year-old sniper, netting 104 goals in two seasons. There were even hockey analysts during the 2005 NHL entry draft that said if Kessel and Sidney Crosby were in the same draft, they would have selected Kessel over Sid the kid.

Kessel is entering his third season as an NHL player. In his first 152 games, the speedy forward has 30 goals and 36 assists. The goal scoring just hasn’t been there.

In this, the last year of his original three-year rookie deal, it’s make it or break it time. After this season, he’ll either be known as one of the more prolific scorers in the NHL, or he’ll be known as a guy with tremendous hype, that was never able to put it together.

In other words, he could be just like Alexander Daigle.

Kessel hasn’t has the easiest of times in the NHL. His rookie season was marred with a 12-game absence while he recovered from testicular cancer. Last season, he branded as a soft player, something that had in fact followed him throughout his career. It forced head coach Claude Julien to bench Kessel for three games in the playoffs against Montreal last April.

Once inserted back into the lineup in Game 6, Kessel was a different player. He looked like the ferocious scorer that he was as a teenager. It’s the player he has to be if he wants to stick around in the top-six rotation of an NHL club.

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