It seems as though Kyle Turris has called it quit on his playing days, as the veteran forward has joined the Coquitlam Express of the BCHL as a special advisor to the general manager and player development coach. Turris released the following statement:
The Express organization played a key role in my personal and professional growth. I am excited about having the opportunity to work with Tali and Patrick as they help each player develop individually, while pursuing the Fred Page Cup as a team.
Turris, 33, played just 23 games with the Edmonton Oilers last season, scoring a single goal and registering four points. His offensive touch had disappeared over the last few years, leading the Nashville Predators to execute a buyout of the last four years of his contract in 2020. That buyout will pay Turris $2MM every season through 2027-28, meaning he’ll be nicely compensated even if never plays again.
As he mentions, the Express is the organization that developed Turris years ago (though they were the Burnaby Express at the time) and turned him into the third-overall pick in the 2007 draft. The dynamic forward scored 66 goals and 121 points in 53 games during his final season in the BCHL, before heading to the University of Wisconsin for a year and then entering the NHL.
For his career at the highest level, Turris was actually rather productive, racking up 168 goals and 425 points in 776 games. His best performance was with the Ottawa Senators, where he had three seasons of at least 24 goals and 55 points. Now he will start a new career, giving back some of his knowledge and experience to the next wave of BCHL talent.
If I were Kyle, I’d head over to Switzerland to play. Unless it’s injury related.
@RipperMagoo – Or, he could have a young family that might not be keen on pulling up roots to go gallivanting on the European Tour. He’s already bounced around a bit in North America, so maybe staying in one place for a while is best for his family.
Do you know this factually or are you merely asserting it?
@RipperMagoo – Note I used the word “could” in the first sentence. Family reasons are becoming more prevalent in player decisions these days. Following a link on Kyle’s Wiki page, an article from 2014 states he and his wife were expecting their first child, who should now be about 8 years old. That, and the fact that the Wiki page states that he and his wife have two sons and a daughter. That “young family” box is now checked. The second sentence is gleaned from his Hockey Reference/HockeyDB/Eliteprospects digital hockey cards. So, no asserting without the minimum detective work was done here. I have been guilty in the past of occasionally referencing a link for a comment that I thought would be trustable, only to find the opposite.
10 seconds on Google led to finding out that he has 3 young kids.
I really wonder what happened here. Was it injury? A loss of motivation? Just the natural aging curve happening a little early and abruptly? He looked so good in the ’17 playoffs for Ottawa, Nashville traded for him, and he has more or less been an empty sweater since then. He would have gotten any other GM than David Poile outright fired. He looked absolutely lost on the ice, timid and ineffective.
I would think there’s a story for how Turris just fell off a cliff, but maybe it’s something boring like “got old early” or “was never that good in the first place.” Maybe he’s more like a baseball pitcher who gets by on pitch placement and deception; there’s just no margin for error, and when one little thing decays, he’s washed. Who knows, but I bet there’s a story there.
Maybe he found some friends on the bottom of the bottle