According to Yle Urheilu’s Tommi Seppala, San Jose Sharks defenseman Markus Nutivaara is calling it a career due to a hip injury. That injury cost Nutivaara his 2022-23 season, meaning he only suited up for preseason games as a member of the San Jose Sharks.
Nutivaara signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Sharks after a 2021-22 season where injuries again limited him severely, this time to only one regular-season game with the Florida Panthers. Nutivaara isn’t even 30, meaning these accumulated injuries have caused him to retire likely far earlier than he otherwise would have.
Although it’s undoubtedly quite a disappointment to see his career end prematurely due to injuries, Nutivaara can definitely look back on his playing career with pride.
The Oulu, Finland native worked his way up the junior ranks in his home country before breaking into Liiga, Finland’s top league, in 2014-15. He won a Liiga title with Karpat that year and was drafted 189th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Nutivaara spent one more year with Karpat before heading to North America, where he would make it as a full-time NHLer as a rookie. He got into 66 games for Columbus and played over 13 minutes a night as a 22-year-old blueliner.
He would go on two play two more seasons as a regular for Columbus, peaking in 2018-19 when he averaged nearly 18 minutes of time on ice per night and scored 21 points. He was on the Blue Jackets team that achieved a historic upset series sweep over the at-the-time record-setting Tampa Bay Lightning.
While the injuries dragged down Nutivaara’s career after that point, he concludes his time as a player having proven himself in the world’s toughest league and achieved championship glory in the top league in his home country.
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