Surviving Off the Boards.
Gifted. Fighter. Humble. Unconquerable.
From CBSSports.com | By Cody Benjamin
Excerpt: “It was August …just a little over a month after he was made the fifth overall pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, coming off the board two spots after eventual Chicago Blackhawks stalwart Jonathan Toews, when it all became a reality.
That’s when Kessel, forever a star on ice and also, willfully or not, a fighter of expectations laid by a family laced with pro athletes, put his name on a career. Literally. It’s when he signed a three-year contract with the Boston Bruins. The deal was worth up to $6.6 million on paper, but it was priceless in that it proved one thing: Phil Kessel had finally, actually made it.
Until almost two months later. Until Dec. 11. The day his family said he had been hospitalized. The day doctors diagnosed him with testicular cancer.”
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