Philip Joseph Kessel, Jr. (born October 2, 1987 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American professional ice hockey forward currently playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Kessel is a product of USA Hockey's National Development Team and became that program's all-time leader for goals and points in his final 2004–05 year. Kessel finished his junior career by playing collegiate hockey for the University of Minnesota in the WCHA. He was the fifth-overall pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, taken by the Bruins. In his rookie 2006–07 NHL season he was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Kessel had an outstanding 2004–05 junior season, one in which many NHL scouts ranked him as a prospect comparable to Sidney Crosby (and one of The Next Ones). Born in October, Kessel missed the 2005 NHL Entry Draft cutoff by only one month. However, in 2005–06, Kessel experienced several setbacks that hurt his ranking as a prospect. Considered the most talented player on the favored United States team in the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he scored only one goal and the team finished in fourth. His college performance was less spectacular than expected; by season's end he was playing third-line minutes for a loaded Minnesota Golden Gophers squad, though he did score 18 goals and finish with 51 total points, a solid season for a freshman forward. Future Boston Bruin forward Blake Wheeler was a teammate of Kessel at the University of Minnesota, during the 2005–06 collegiate ice hockey season.