Kessel's path to NHL has story of its own; defenseman showing great promise for Blues in early stages of NHL career

"It's a unique situation," UMass coach Greg Carvel said. "... We actually didn't pick him. We had a Finnish defenseman here who didn't work out and wanted to go home, so we needed a defenseman badly. My assistant coach, Ben Barr, had known the family and it worked out. I think he decided in August and arrived in school in September and what I was told was he's a big, shutdown defenseman. I walked in the door and he was a big guy. The kid quickly became a very good two-way defenseman at our level. I think he scored seven goals as a freshman, which is a lot for a defenseman having never really scored at the junior level. He quickly took to our style. I think we've done a really good job of developing defensemen in our program."

Carvel's program has carved out the likes of Cale Makar [Colorado Avalanche], Mario Ferraro [San Jose Sharks], and Kessel's partner with the Minutemen: Zac Jones of the New York Rangers.

"They were a dynamic pair because Zach was so good with the puck," Carvel said. "I think Matt learned a lot playing with Zac Jones, and Zac Jones learned a lot playing with Matt. Matt was really a dependable, big-sized defenseman, really good mobility for his size, but he was sneaky good offensively."

Kessel (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) has quickly found his niche with the Blues in the NHL after being recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Dec. 30 after an injury to fellow defenseman Justin Faulk; he actually made his debut last season on April 2, 2023 against the Boston Bruins.

The 23-year-old Phoenix-born who grew up in the Detroit area and helped UMass to its first NCAA championship in 2021, eventually made his way to the Thunderbirds after three seasons in college and then helped Springfield reach the Calder Cup Final in 2022; Kessel has really made favorable marks at the start of his NHL career too, to the surprise of no one, including Kessel's college coach.

"I'm not surprised he's made his way to the NHL," Carvel said. "I know Keith Tkachuk was the guy that really followed him and really liked him as a player. Our program has kind of a signature that our kids play hard and Matt was one of the leaders in that area. He was a physical force. His junior year, I just remember his last game he played in the NCAA Tournament against Minnesota, and he absolutely was blowing guys up, and he was ready to move on after his junior year. He had done what he needed to do at this level.

"... I think he's had a really good development path, a couple years in the American League. He's a big, strong kid. He's got a nice skillset, he moves well for a big guy, he plays hard. I think he fits the St. Louis mold of defensemen pretty well."

Kessel finally proved he was human in a 4-3 overtime win against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. It took nearly all of 11 games, but Kessel was finally on the ice for a goal against at even strength. So he's not perfect, but the small sample size he's shown thus far is that the Blues, who drafted Kessel in the fifth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, may have found themselves a keeper.

"It's been a lot of fun. It's obviously what I want to do," Kessel said. "That's the role I want to play on this team. It's been a lot of fun to be able to test my ability. I definitely still think I'm growing, but I'm happy with where I'm at right now and it's just fun to continue to keep competing against them."

"Them" being not only NHL-caliber players, but top-tiered players.

The Blues are trusting Kessel to not only be in the lineup on a regular basis but playing him against the top of the line skaters in the league playing both on the second pair with Torey Krug and on the third pair with either Scott Perunovich or Marco Scandella. He's gone up against Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Elias Pettersson, Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand to name some, and come out of those tests remarkably well.

"That's great if he's playing in the top four and being trusted to play against those top lines," Carvel said. "That's awesome. I'm not surprised."

And Blues interim coach Drew Bannister, who also was Kessel's coach in Springfield, doesn't seem to have any inkling to take the righty out of the lineup any time soon.

"Kessel continues to show the organization that he's an NHL-ready defenseman," Bannister said. "It's been a small sample size, but surely he's done enough to continue to stay in the lineup. But as the season goes on here and more games are played, I think that will be how we figure out how he is a full time player. I certainly see him trending in the right direction of being a full time NHL defenseman. I've said this before, I have a lot of belief in that player. I've seen a lot of growth in his game at the American League level and I think it's starting to translate to the NHL."

Kessel's calm demeanor likely started years ago, and there were likely great examples of it when he was part of winning the Clark Cup with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League in 2019, but Kessel was especially instrumental when he helped UMass win a championship at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh when the Minutemen blasted St. Cloud St. 5-0, a game in which Kessel scored.

"He was critical," Carvel said. "Him and Zac Jones were a dynamic defensive pair. They both could do it at both ends of the ice. Matt scored in the national championship on the power play, but he just played the big, shutdown defenseman that we needed at times. He was just really good. He could move the puck, he could be aggressive defensively with mobility.

"The thing that you love about him is he's like a Midwestern kid. He's got nothing to say, he just smiles all the time. He's the same every single day. He was a real joy to coach."

Kessel, who had 51 points (23 goals, 28 assists) in 100 games at UMass and 42 points (seven goals, 35 assists) in 106 regular-season games at Springfield with another goal and assist in 20 Calder Cup Playoff games, had a cup of coffee with the Blues has season playing two games; once he made his season debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 30, he hasn't looked back.

"This is where I want to be," Kessel said. "I think a lot of that is just playing my game, I've found my role. ... It's the same game. Just continue to have fun and being up here is a great opportunity and I love it.

"It's been a lot of fun playing against other teams' top lines, playing against some very good names in the NHL. It's a great way to test my skills and continue to go from there."

Kessel's certainly testing his skills well thus far. He's played in only 13 NHL games with no points but understanding his role and utilizing it well will serve him well in the long run. Thus far, it's been a good start, and he's quickly growing on Blues fans.

"I think he's just got such a great combination of size, mobility, ability and his mental makeup is a really good combination," Carvel said. "I just thought he could play at the NHL because of all that. He's a horse. You don't want to run into this kid. He's got a mean edge to him when he wants to. He's a great third-pair defenseman in the NHL. That's what you hoped he would be, but to his credit, he's extremely well-conditioned, extremely committed. One of the more underrated values of an athlete is consistency, and he was the same thing every single day.

"He knew what his game was and he just stayed within it. That doesn't mean he wasn't capable offensively, but he just played a practical, predictable game, and he uses his assets really well."