Veteran goalie Jaroslav Halak is ending his playing career, telling Tomas Prokop of the Slovak website Dennik Sport that he’s officially retired.
Halak, 40, hasn’t played anywhere in the last two seasons aside from a brief tryout with the Hurricanes that didn’t result in game action early in 2023-24. A ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft, his 17-year NHL career included time with the Canadiens, Blues, Capitals, Islanders, Bruins, Canucks, and Rangers, last playing in New York’s final game of the 2022-23 regular season.
Montreal was the team that drafted him 271st overall from the QMJHL’s Lewiston MAINEiacs, and that’s where Halak got his start in the NHL three years later. He emerged as another young complement in the Canadiens’ pool alongside young star Carey Price, even taking over the starter’s role in the 2009-10 season and backstopping the team to a surprise run to the Conference Finals before being traded to St. Louis for Lars Eller the following summer.
Halak never spent more than four years with a club in his prime and was prone to year-to-year inconsistency, but he was an arguable top-10 goalie in the league at his absolute peak with multiple seasons of save percentages above .920. He was always more of a 1A option than a true starter, only playing more than 50 games four times, but he ends his career as a one-time All-Star, two-time Jennings Trophy winner, and he finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice.
After serving as the 1A option for the Blues from 2010-14 and on Long Island from 2014-18 with a brief post-deadline stop in Washington in between, Halak spent the twilight years of his career as one of the league’s better backup options for Boston (2018-21), Vancouver (2021-22), and the Rangers (2022-23). He’s been an unrestricted free agent since then, with no items of note on his NHL future since being released from his aforementioned PTO with Carolina in November 2023.
In 581 regular-season appearances, the Bratislava native posted a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% with a 295-189-63 record and 53 shutouts. One of the best undersized netminders (5’11”, 189 lbs) of his generation, he posted an even better .919 SV% and 2.48 GAA in 39 playoff games in six trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
All of us at PHR wish Halak the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.
His playoff performance against the Capitals in 2010 set the franchise back a bit…. They punch through there and perhaps Caps reel off several cup runs…. 53 saves in Game 6 . Congrats on a great career and enjoy retirement. link to russianmachineneverbreaks.com
17 seasons played is incredible for being drafted in a round that doesn’t exist anymore!
And yes his 2010 performance was a major highlight
Great career. Always liked him in Montreal even as a Leafs fan.
Too bad he didn’t get 300 wins, his numbers are better than some HOF players! As a Kings fan I appreciate Halak & Elliot, especially between 2012-2014! Both 9th round picks in 2003 and a tandem on some good Blues teams!
Dang, those are pretty good numbers for a 1A tbh. Congrats to Halak for a pretty good career
In 2010, I saw early on in that Habs vs. Caps series that the Habs were for real. It was the most fun I ever had watching a series that didn’t involve PGH. Halak was awesome.
THEN that SOB beat us in the next round and ended our defense of the 2009 Cup. That was less fun.
Really good goalie.
Damn good backup towards the end, and I still don’t know why in a goalie-hungry league he didn’t catch on two years ago. We remember you well in Boston, Jaro, happy retirement!