Two-time Stanley Cup champion winger Carl Hagelin announced his retirement today via an Instagram post. Now 35 years old, Hagelin missed the 2022-23 season due to severe eye and hip injuries.
“It’s been an amazing ride, but it ends here,” Hagelin said. “Unfortunately, my eye injury is too severe to keep playing the game I love.” He told reporters at the beginning of the offseason that he hoped to return to NHL play for the 2023-24 campaign, but unfortunately, that won’t be the case. His four-year, $11MM extension he’d signed with Washington in 2019 expired on July 1.
Picked in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers out of Södertälje SK’s junior program in Sweden, Hagelin took a somewhat unconventional path for European prospects and immediately came over to North America, embarking on a four-year collegiate career with the University of Michigan. It was undoubtedly the right choice, however – by his senior year, he was named team captain and produced over a point per game over his last two seasons.
Aside from a few games in the minors in 2011-12, Hagelin made the jump to the NHL immediately from college, recording 38 points in 64 games during his rookie season with the Rangers, along with a +24 rating. That placed him fifth in Calder Trophy voting and even earned him a few votes for the Selke Trophy.
He would continue consistently producing in the 30-40 point range over his four-year tenure with the Rangers but never really built on that rookie campaign. That’s not a knock on Hagelin at all, however. He was a quintessential two-way middle-six secondary scoring forward with a good amount of speed to his game. That’s even more impressive in relation to his sixth-round selection, given he went on to play over 700 NHL games.
His tenure in New York ended somewhat unceremoniously. A restricted free agent at the end of 2014-15, he couldn’t agree to a new deal with the Rangers and his signing rights were dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for depth forward Emerson Etem (along with some draft picks changing hands, but nothing of significance). Anaheim compensated him nicely by signing him to the richest contract of his career (four years, $16MM), but Hagelin couldn’t really find his game in Southern California. He recorded just 12 points in 43 games to begin 2015-16 before Anaheim moved him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for David Perron, who was similarly underperforming in Pittsburgh.
It would turn out to be one of the most underrated transactions in Penguins history. Down the stretch, Hagelin would complete the famed third line with Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel that played such a crucial role in Pittsburgh winning their first of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016. Hagelin exploded for 27 points in 37 games after the trade and added 16 points in 24 playoff games en route to the championship.
Again, he couldn’t quite recapture that performance the following season. While he would win another championship in 2017, he scored just two goals in 15 games during that playoff run. Fast forward to 2018-19, and Hagelin had scored only one goal and two assists through the first 16 games of the season. A move to the Los Angeles Kings in November didn’t do much for him, either – he recorded just five points in 22 games there. It was near the 2018-19 deadline that the Kings moved him to Washington, where he notched 11 points in the final 20 games of the season, appearing rejuvenated and earning himself the final four-year extension.
Hagelin would wrap up his career by scoring 20 goals and 66 points throughout 187 games in a Capitals uniform, posting solid numbers for a bottom-six scoring winger. Unfortunately, it was a freak eye injury in a practice in March of 2022 that would end his career.
PHR extends our best wishes to Hagelin in his continued recovery from both injuries and congratulates him on a championship-caliber career.
Hopefully his ridiculous flipped up vizor is retiring with him. For no reason whatsoever it always bothered me like crazy and made me not like this guy. It is up there with Plekanec’ turtleneck and Ovechkins pad flap.
Flipped-up visor = eye injury
Who woulda thunk it?
Can you explain all the guys without visors who never suffer eye injuries?
You dislike guys based on equipment? Wow. Life cannot be much fun when simple stuff like that makes you miserable. Can only imagine how tweaked you get over things that actually matter.
No, I never said I disliked Haglund. I dislike you, but not Haglund.
Well if his visor were worn correctly……..forget it, you have no common sense, just contention. You’re a childish troll that probably lives in your mother’s basement.
*Stick taps* loved his play style even on the penguins. Was so glad when he came to DC. Solid career
That guy could flat out skate. Will always be remembered for that.
link to thehockeynews.com
“In a routine competition drill, Hagelin was battling with a teammate for the puck. Both were giving a full effort and, as is the case in hockey, a stick came up. It went under Hagelin’s notorious tilted visor and through Hagelin’s left eye, ripping all the way through the back of it.
“My eye!” he shouted out at that practice. He was immediately helped off, a towel pressed against his face to stop the bleeding as he was rushed back to the dressing room.
At first, doctors thought that Hagelin’s eye may have to be removed. Much to his relief, he was able to undergo two surgeries — one on the front of the eye, one on the back — to repair a ruptured choroid and “restitch” his pupil, a process that involves using sutures in the iris to help manage how much light gets into his pupil.
The Swede spent two weeks in “total darkness” and would only regain part of his vision and lost depth perception in that eye. His pupil is also always stuck in position and cannot dilate or contract, which makes it difficult to see and deal with glare. Sunglasses help, but he doesn’t wear them all the time.”
Wow, I had no idea it was that bad. There was no way he was coming back from that.