The Boston Bruins have assigned rookie forward Phil Kessel to Providence, their American Hockey League affiliate, for a three-game conditioning stint following successful cancer treatment, it was announced Friday.
The American teenager will be recalled by Boston on Sunday night following Providence's game against the Springfield Falcons.
Phil Kessel has five goals and nine points in 27 games this season for the Bruins.
((Mary Schwalm/Associated Press)
Kessel practised with the Bruins on Wednesday for the first time since his surgery for testicular cancer last month, and worked out with them again Thursday morning.
"At just 19 years old and in his first season in the NHL, it would be difficult for Phil to come right back to Boston in the middle of the season, after being off the ice for a month," said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli.
"These few games in Providence will help Phil readjust to the speed of the NHL so that he is ready to join Boston on Monday morning."
Kessel, from Madison, Wis., has five goals and nine points in 27 games.
He was the Bruins' first pick (fifth overall) in the 2006 draft after playing one season of college hockey at the University of Minnesota in 2005-06, finishing second on the team and sixth overall in league scoring with 18 goals and 51 points in 34 games. He led the club in plus-minus with a +22 rating.
Kessel also played for the United States at two world junior hockey tournaments and led the 2006 tournament in scoring with one goal and 10 assists.
Guides U.S. to gold
Boasting an impressive mix of guile, skill and speed, Kessel helped guide the U.S. to the gold medal at the 2005 world under-18 hockey championship in the Czech Republic.
The forward finished the tournament as the runaway scoring leader with 16 points (nine goals) in six games.
USA Today called Kessel The King of all Hockey Prospects, and some hockey experts went so far to suggest that if Kessel were eligible for the 2005 draft — he was too young at the time — he should be picked No.1 overall, ahead of Sidney Crosby, now a Pittsburgh Penguins star.
"It's tough to deal with," Kessel told CBC Sports Online recently when asked about coping with the pressures of being the "next big thing.
"You're expected to do so much all the time. It's hard."
With files from the Canadian Press
