Will Phil Kessel play against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals?

Phil Kessel has been a healthy scratch for the Vegas Golden Knights since Game 5 against the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the playoffs.

Since that round, Vegas has gone on to beat the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars in six games to advance to the Cup Final.

Yet, many fans are wondering if Kessel will see any ice time in the Cup Final against the Florida Panthers.

At this time, it seems highly unlikely Phil Kessel will play in the Stanley Cup Finals unless the Vegas Golden Knights deal with plenty of injuries or suspensions.

Why Phil Kessel is unlikely to play in the Stanley Cup Finals

The Golden Knights have found a winning lineup and unfortunately, Kessel doesn't fit into those plans as he is not as fast as he once was and isn't good defensively which is why Bruce Cassidy decided to scratch him.

“It doesn’t matter that we’re 3-1 with the other guys," Cassidy said about scratching Kessel and changing his lines. “You have to put your best foot forward every night in this league and play your best lineup. That’s just what I believe, and that’s what we’ll do if he’s ready to go.

"You may look at it from the perspective of, ‘why would you change the lineup if you’re up 3-1'. If you can put a player in that helps you get to your game and your ceiling, then you owe it to your team to do that.”

It also shouldn't have been a huge surprise that Cassidy decided to scratch Phil Kessel as throughout the year the head coach criticized the American forward.

"We had a conversation about it," Cassidy said in Decemeber. "Phil, over his career, has played with good offensive players, so sometimes, you just assume: 'Well, a smart player will figure it out.' He hasn't been strong on pucks on that side of the ice and hasn't sort of finished plays, so at the end of the day, again, when you're behind, you try something else...

"We might get a mismatch on an icing where we want a certain face-off situation, O-zone, but in general, they're going to play against good players. And whoever's up there, be it Phil or anybody, has to respect that and play a 200-foot game.

"And I think that's where I can't say enough about Jack [Eichel] and his commitment to doing that. Brett Howden was doing it. I think Paul Cotter was learning, again, a younger guy, our job to coach him up. So that's where Phil hasn't given us the same area of a 200-foot game that those other guys have."

Phil Kessel's 2022 NHL season

With Phil Kessel likely not playing again, he will register four games played with two assists and two penalty minutes in the playoffs.

In the regular season, Kessel played in all 82 games and had 14 goals and 22 assists for 36 points but his being a defensive liability has kept him out of the lineup.