The longest Ironman streak in NHL history is over.

The longest running Ironman streak in the history of the National Hockey League has officially come to an end.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle has appeared in a mind boggling 989 consecutive NHL games, a testament to his incredible durability, his incredible force of will, and quite frankly his incredible toughness, but that streak is now over. NHL insider Kevin Weekes was the first to break the news on Saturday morning when he leaked that the Flyers were making the decision to leave Yandle on the sidelines and end his streak.

As Weekes also points out, it feels like a very strange decision from a Flyers franchise that has no hopes of making the playoffs and has very few games remaining on their calendar this season.

The news however has now officially been confirmed by the Flyers so there is no doubt that the streak will come to an end this evening. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reports that head coach Mike Yeo himself has confirmed the decision. This means that Yandle's streak will stop this evening, 989 games into his run.

Just one week ago I published a story on Phil Kessel climbing the NHL's all time Ironman rankings and at the time I suggested he could be close to catching Yandle should the veteran defenseman falter come next season, but as it turns out Kessel may be much closer to be becoming the NHL's all time Ironman than I had believed.

If Kessel plays next season and stays healthy he will now surpass Yandle in very short order and I think there's no chance that Kessel retires instead of playing next season. It will probably have to come at a significant discount from the cap hit of $8 million he currently earns on his contract that is set to expire at the end of the season, but Kessel has already shown signs that the ironman streak is important to him. Earlier this season Kessel took a single shift for the Coyotes before leaving for the birth of his child, a shift he clearly took to preserve his current streak.

The greatest Ironman streak in NHL history has come to an end, but a new one may be just around the corner.