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Valtteri Filppula Announces Retirement

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16-year NHL veteran Valtteri Filppula has ended his playing career. Helsinki-based Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier league, Mestis, where he spent the 2024-25 campaign, made the announcement today.

Filppula, 41, hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2020-21 campaign but remained steadily active overseas. After a strong three-year run in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League, he returned to Jokerit, where he began his professional career, last summer as player and part-owner.

Jokerit, a staple of top-flight Finnish hockey, joined Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in the mid-2010s but withdrew from the league abruptly in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were denied re-entry into the top-level Liiga and thus restarted play in Mestis in 2023-24. Filppula captained the team to a Mestis championship this season and finished second on the team in scoring with 14-27–41 in 39 games, but Jokerit dropped the Liiga relegation series against Pelicans and will thus remain in Mestis for 2025-26.

It was a mostly triumphant end to Filppula’s 22-year professional career. He made his Liiga (then the SM-liiga) debut with Jokerit in 2003-04, one year after the Red Wings selected him in the third round of the 2002 NHL draft. He led the league in rookie scoring that year and then reached the championship series in 2004-05 before heading to Detroit for 2005-06.

Filppula spent most of his first season in North America with AHL Grand Rapids, where he exploded out of the gate for a 20-50–70 scoring line in 74 games and was naturally a participant in the league’s All-Star Game. He earned a full-time role on the powerhouse Red Wings for 2006-07 and never looked back. The 6’0″ center played a key depth role in Detroit’s back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2008 and 2009, winning the only ring of his career in the former year, recording 27 points and a +15 rating in 45 games across the two runs.

The left-shot pivot got more of a run in top-six minutes in the years to come, but his offense was hot and cold from year to year. After scoring 23 goals and a career-high 66 points for Detroit in 81 games in the 2011-12 campaign, he mustered just 17 points in 41 games in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, leading the team to let him walk in unrestricted free agency after the five-year, $15MM deal he signed in the 2008 offseason expired.

Filppula landed another five-year deal on the open market, receiving $25MM from the Lightning to stay in the Atlantic Division. His offensive production came roaring back, lighting the lamp a career-best 25 times in 75 games in 2013-14 while playing just south of 20 minutes per night. In Year 2 in Tampa, he played a crucial top-line role with Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos as the Bolts marched to the Stanley Cup Final but lost to the Blackhawks. He scored 4-10–14 in 26 games in that playoff run.

His offense soon began to taper off for good. He never eclipsed the 20-goal mark again after that 25-goal season, and his last time hitting 40 points was in the 2016-17 campaign. He remained a capable defensive presence in dwindling minutes, though. After brief stints with the Flyers and Islanders in the late 2010s, Filppula hit the open market in 2019 and reunited with Detroit on a two-year, $6MM deal.

An aging Filppula understandably wasn’t much of an impact player, especially on a 2019-20 Red Wings squad that finished with the worst points percentage of any team in the salary cap era. After recording a 12-24–36 scoring line with a -43 rating in 108 games for the Wings over two seasons, Filppula opted to play out the remainder of his career in Europe.

Filppula was one of Switzerland’s premier talents in his three-year run in the NL, scoring 47-84–131 in 145 games with a +16 rating for Genève-Servette after signing there in 2021. He won a league title with the club in 2023 while leading the postseason in assists and won a Champions Hockey League title as the top club in Europe in 2024. Heading overseas at the time also allowed him to represent Finland in the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he recorded two assists in six games as captain and won a gold medal. He also won a gold medal at the World Championship that year, making him the only Finnish member and most recent entrant of the Triple Gold Club.

Filppula retires after scoring 197 goals, 333 assists, and 530 points in 1,056 career regular-season games. The ever-steady center also won 50.8% of his career faceoffs and ranks 34th in playoff scoring since the 2004-05 lockout with 86 points in 166 career postseason games. All of us at PHR wish Filppula the best in retirement.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.

Cal Clutterbuck Announces Retirement

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Longtime agitator Cal Clutterbuck, who spent 17 years in the NHL, has confirmed the end of his playing career. Clutterbuck published a reel on Instagram today announcing his retirement after going unsigned for the 2024-25 season.

“After 17 years, it’s time to hang up the skates,” Clutterbuck wrote. “I’m beyond grateful for every teammate, coach, fan, and moment along the way. Hockey gave me everything — a purpose, a brotherhood, and a lifetime of memories.”

“To Matt and Casey — it was an honor to go to war with you night in and night out. What we built together means more than words can say. And to the Islanders faithful — your passion, loyalty, and love made Long Island home. Thank you all. On to the next chapter.”

Matt and Casey, of course, refer to longtime linemates Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas on Long Island. The trio has essentially served as the Islanders’ fourth line ever since they acquired Clutterbuck from the Wild in 2013, aside from Martin’s two-year stint with the Maple Leafs from 2016 to 2018. One of the more recognizable and feared checking units of the millennium, Clutterbuck certainly played his part. He retires as the league’s all-time hits leader with 4,029, 93 ahead of the second-place Martin.

While Clutterbuck will be most remembered for his time in Nassau County, his NHL career began as a third-round pick by the Wild in 2006, after he dominated junior hockey with 68 points and 139 penalty minutes in 66 games with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. He returned to Oshawa the following year, but thanks to his November birthday, was able to spend the 2007-08 season in the AHL with Minnesota’s affiliate, the Houston Aeros. He didn’t make much of a splash offensively in his first taste of pro hockey, perhaps a sign of things to come, but still managed to make his NHL debut across a pair of early-season contests.

Despite only managing 24 points in 73 AHL games out of the gate, the Wild liked Clutterbuck’s physicality enough to make him a bottom-six fixture as a 21-year-old in the 2008-09 campaign. His 11-goal, 356-hit rookie season meant he never touched minor-league ice again aside from a conditioning stint in 2019-20. A few years into his Minnesota tenure, Clutterbuck looked like he might be able to stick as a true top-nine power forward when he scored 19 goals and 34 points in the 2010-11 campaign while averaging nearly 16 minutes per night, but those numbers would stand as career-highs. Clutterbuck only hit double-digit goals in a season three more times.

Nonetheless, Clutterbuck still carved out a bottom-six niche and played 1,064 games – 718 of which came after the Isles acquired him for then-struggling top-five pick Nino Niederreiter in the 2013 offseason. Niederreiter blossomed into a legitimate two-way top-six winger in Minnesota. Still, Clutterbuck stuck around far longer with his new team, even earning a five-year, $17.5MM extension from the club in 2016, despite his relatively minimal offensive impact.

An alternate captain in New York for the last decade of his career, Clutterbuck retires at 12th on the Isles’ all-time games played list in the regular season. He also added 11-7–18 and 340 hits in 76 games across seven playoff appearances on the Island. The Ontario native recorded a 143-150–293 scoring line with a -19 rating and 698 PIMs in 1,064 career games. All of us at PHR wish Clutterbuck the best in the next phase of his hockey career.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

David Savard To Retire Following Season

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Canadiens defenseman David Savard will retire whenever Montreal’s time in the postseason ends, he confirmed to reporters today (including Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports).

Savard, 34, will close the book on an 870-game career spanning 14 seasons. It began at the 2009 draft, when the Blue Jackets selected him in the fourth round from the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats. An elder statesman for his draft year, thanks to his October birthday, the defensive-minded defender had still managed 44 points in 68 games in his draft year with a +29 rating. Combined with his 6’1″, 234-lb frame as a right-shot defender, it’s surprising at first glance that he slipped that far in the draft.

In turn, his development path quickly outpaced that of the average fourth-round pick. Savard erupted for over a point per game the following year with Moncton, earning QMJHL Defensive Defenseman of the Year honors while also leading the league’s blue liners in scoring. That landed him his entry-level deal with Columbus, and he joined the team’s AHL affiliate, then the Springfield Falcons, for the 2010-11 campaign.

Savard spent most of his three-year rookie deal in the minors, although he did appear in 35 NHL games in limited minutes during that span. After posting 97 points in 176 minor-league games with a +12 rating, Savard entered Blue Jackets camp in 2013-14 looking to land a full-time role after inking his qualifying offer over the summer. He achieved his goal. While he wasn’t yet a top-four force, he avoided an AHL assignment that year and hasn’t touched minor-league ice since. Following a five-goal, 15-point performance in 70 regular-season games and an exceptional postseason showing in Columbus’ first-round loss to the Penguins, the Jackets signed Savard to a two-year, $2.6MM bridge deal.

That was quite the prudent decision from former Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen. Savard had the best season of his career in 2014-15, serving as the team’s No. 2 defenseman behind Jack Johnson while posting an 11-25–36 scoring line in 82 games. He led the Jackets with 195 hits to boot and posted an even rating on a streaky Jackets team that finished with a -21 goal differential and missed the playoffs. That was also Savard’s first season averaging over 19 minutes per game, a mark he’d eclipse in every following season until this year.

Before leading Blue Jackets defensemen in scoring in 2015-16 with 25 points in 65 games, Savard agreed to the first long-term deal of his career: a five-year, $21.25MM commitment to keep him in Columbus through the 2020-21 season. He continued to serve as the Jackets’ premier shutdown defenseman for most of that contract, including a team-leading +33 rating when the Jackets recorded the only 50-win season in franchise history in the 2016-17 campaign.

Coming out of the pandemic, Savard’s game nosedived in the final year of his deal. He managed just six points and a -19 rating in 40 games for Columbus in the shortened 2021 season, and with the Jackets entering a rebuild, there wasn’t a path toward an extension. They retained some of his salary and traded him to the Lightning before the deadline, ending his time in Columbus after nearly 10 seasons with the club.

Savard’s time in Tampa was short but fruitful. He continued to struggle down the stretch in the regular season and had his minutes slashed in the playoffs, averaging just 14 minutes per game in third-pairing duties with Mikhail Sergachev. His play improved when he was lower in the lineup, posting five assists and an even rating in 20 games as he helped the Bolts win their second consecutive championship.

A free agent the following offseason, Savard inked a four-year, $14MM contract with the Canadiens – the team he defeated in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final – to help fill the void left by captain Shea Weber hanging up the skates due to multiple injuries. While Savard’s possession impacts lacked in Montreal on a team that’s failed to control possession well during his tenure, the Quebec native has been a vital leadership figure as the Habs continue to graduate younger rearguards into NHL minutes. With his regular-season career now behind him, he posted 13-63–76 and a -45 rating across 259 appearances for Montreal, averaging 19:50 per game.

Savard had averaged over 20 minutes per game in his first three seasons with the Canadiens but saw his minutes slashed to 16:35 per game in 2024-25, slipping down the depth chart behind Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, and Alexandre Carrier. That, plus the toll injuries have taken over the past few years, likely influenced his decision to step away from the game. Lavoie adds that Savard informed Montreal’s front office of his intent to retire a few weeks ago.

He ends his career with 54-188–242 and a -29 rating in 870 career regular-season games. Despite spending the last four-plus years of his career elsewhere, Savard’s 597 games played in a Blue Jackets uniform still rank fifth in franchise history and first among defensemen, although Zach Werenski will eclipse that record next season, barring injury. All of us at Pro Hockey Rumors congratulate Savard on his lengthy career and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports.

Sharks’ Logan Couture Announces Retirement Due To Injury

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April 15: As expected, Couture told reporters today that he’s unable to continue his playing career (via Pashelka). He’ll presumably remain on long-term injured reserve (if necessary to keep San Jose cap-compliant) for the remainder of his contract, which carries an $8MM cap hit through 2026-27.

April 14: The San Jose Sharks are planning to hold a joint press conference with team captain Logan Couture on Tuesday where Couture is expected to announce the end of his playing career due to injury, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. The news was originally reported by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Couture has been working to recover from Osteitis Pubis, a condition that causes inflammation of the joints between pubic bones.

Couture made a detailed effort to return to game shape after receiving his diagnosis ahead of the 2023-24 season. He had to miss the first three months of the campaign to rehab, but told NHL.com in December of 2023 that he was optimistic and trending upwards. Couture said at the time:

Finally, knock on wood, everything continues to go well and I’m over that hump and things can continue to trend to me getting back to practicing with the guys.

He would skate in his first game of that season just over one month after delivering that quote – and recorded an assist in his return. But Couture’s comeback was short-lived, and he’d end up back out of the lineup due to his injury after just six games. His final game, on January 31st of 2024, will now stand as the last of Couture’s storied NHL career.

There’s a short list of players whose name is more ubiquitous with Sharks hockey than Couture’s. He spent all 16 seasons of his NHL career with San Jose, after being drafted by the team with the ninth overall selection in the 2007 NHL Draft. Over the years, Couture worked his way up to the fifth-most games (933) and fourth-most points (701) in franchise history. He also ranks third in goals (323) and fifth in assists (378).

Couture played through his NHL rookie season on the 2009-10 Sharks – a legendary squad in franchise history that featured the likes of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, Dan Boyle, Ryane Clowe, and Joe Pavelski among many others. Couture only scored nine points in 25 games – the minimum to qualify a rookie season. He found his spot in the NHL lineup before the end of the regular season and went on to support San Jose with four goals in 15 playoff games as the team chased a loss in the Western Conference Finals. Couture would play his first full season in the following year. He scored an impressive 32 goals and 56 points in 79 games during the regular season, and added 14 points split evenly in 18 playoff games to again push the Sharks to a loss in the Western Conference Finals.

With his legs under him, Couture quickly became a locked-in piece of the Sharks’ daily lineup. He held down a set-and-forget role as San Jose’s second-line center throughout the 2010s, serving as the young-and-reliable punch behind Thornton, Marleau, and Pavelski as the trio aged. He routinely rivaled the 30-goal and 60-point mark during the regular season, and consistently found a way to grow to point-per-game scoring in the postseason. That sentiment rang loudest during the 2015-16 campaign, when Couture was forced out of 30 regular season games by a broken fibula – but then returned for a dazzling 10 goals and 30 points in 24 playoff games. He was the beating heart of the Sharks lineup that summer, and pushed the team to their first Stanley Cup Final in franchise history, only to be beaten by the dynasty-era Pittsburgh Penguins.

San Jose’s routine appearance in the postseason would fizzle out just three years after their run to the Cup Finals. Couture scored 20 points in 20 games of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs to push the team to one last run to the Conference Finals, but their walls crumbled soon after. Couture missed 30 games of the 2019-20 season with a fractured ankle. His next full season was in 2020-21, on a Sharks lineup without Thornton and soon to part with Marleau, Brent Burns, and Erik Karlsson. The Sharks continued to tear down through 2023-24 – sending Timo Meier to New Jersey in 2023 and Tomas Hertl to Vegas in 2024. Through all of the change and fluctuation, Couture remained the proud consistent – holding strong to the captaincy and welcoming an increasingly younger roster with open arms.

Couture’s support of the Sharks has stayed consistent even as he’s faced career-ending injury. He’s supported rookie head coach Ryan Warsofsky for much of this season, helping to make lineup decisions and adjust star rookies to the next level. He enters retirement still in firm grip of San Jose’s captaincy – and surely with a coaching or development role soon to come. Stepping onto a pro team’s staff will likely coincide with Couture handing the Sharks’ “C” to one of the team’s future superstars – most likely Macklin Celebrini. That handoff will mark yet another meaningful step in Couture’s journey as a Sharks legend, even if the details surrounding it are unfortunate. Couture’s only hardware during his NHL career was a Gold Medal at the 2017 World Cup – though his presence as a consistent leader, strong two-way forward, and top-echelon franchise scorer will almost certainly earn the Guelph, Ontario native respect from local Hall of Fames over the coming years.

Alec Martinez Announces Retirement

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Today will be Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez’s final NHL game, he told Chicago Sports Network’s Darren Pang during warmups (via Tab Bamford of Bleacher Nation). He joins teammate Pat Maroon in retiring following the season, but neither will travel for the team’s season-ending road trip through Montreal and Ottawa.

Martinez’s NHL dream began in 2007 when the Kings selected him in the fourth round out of Miami University. He had been passed over in the 2005 and 2006 drafts but was selected following a strong sophomore showing with the RedHawks. His post-draft season saw him record a career-high in points and CCHA Best Defensive Defenseman honors, earning him an entry-level contract with Los Angeles the following summer. He spent most of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons with their AHL affiliate, then the Manchester Monarchs, but made his NHL debut with a four-game trial in the latter campaign.

After a strong start to 2010-11 in Manchester, the Kings recalled him in November, and he never looked back. He scored his first NHL goal in his first game of the season and stuck around as a bottom-pairing fixture, posting 5-11–16 in 60 games with a +11 rating as the Kings made the playoffs but lost to the Sharks in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

In 2011-12, Martinez spent the first half of the year as a frequent healthy scratch but got regular reps after L.A. traded rearguard Jack Johnson to the Blue Jackets for Jeff Carter. Of course, that trade was one of the most consequential of the decade – Carter flourished in a top-six role as the eighth-seeded Kings dominated the 2012 postseason en route to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Martinez played in all 20 playoff games, now a third-pairing regular with Johnson out of the picture, and posted three points with a plus-five rating while averaging 14:28 per game.

That’s not the Cup run Kings fans will remember Martinez for, though. Now established as a consistent championship contender, Martinez posted a career-high 22 points in the 2013-14 regular season before scoring two overtime series-clinching goals – one to send the Kings to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final and the other to win it over the Rangers a couple of weeks later. Those were two of the five goals Martinez scored during that playoff run, the same number as star blue-liner Drew Doughty, as he forever established himself as a legend in Los Angeles sporting lore.

In his late 20s, Martinez began taking on consistent top-four minutes as the Kings’ championship window drew to a close. His most divisive season came on a 2016-17 Kings club that missed the playoffs, posting a career-high 39 points in 82 games while finishing with a career-worst -17 rating.

While Martinez’s point totals began to dwindle in the late 2010s, he remained a shot-blocking extraordinaire with a well-rounded defensive game. Amid his fifth consecutive season averaging over 20 minutes per game, his time in Los Angeles came to an end when they traded him to the Golden Knights ahead of the 2020 deadline.

The trade to Vegas breathed new life into Martinez’s two-way game. He made multiple deep playoff runs with the club, including his third Stanley Cup ring in 2023, while continuing to serve as a top-four presence, commonly alongside Alex Pietrangelo. He also had the best offensive campaign of his career in 2020-21 with 0.60 points per game – 0.12 above his previous career high – but the COVID-shortened season prevented him from setting a career-high in points outright. In Vegas’ first Stanley Cup championship in 2023, Martinez’s +13 rating ranked fifth on the team, and he naturally led the club with 57 blocks in the postseason.

Injuries also began to stunt Martinez’s availability, though. After making just 26 appearances in the 2021-22 season, multiple injuries cost him a significant chunk of the 2023-24 campaign. With his ice time and normally staunch possession impacts dwindling, Vegas opted not to re-sign him with his three-year, $15.75MM contract coming to a close.

The Blackhawks stepped up to offer the respected veteran a one-year, $4MM commitment on the open market, and the 37-year-old Martinez arrived in Chicago to help anchor one of the league’s most inexperienced blue lines. Groin and neck injuries limited him to 43 appearances, but he served as an alternate captain and contributed 12 points with a -15 rating while averaging 18:45 per game. Of course, his 5.95 blocks per 60 minutes finished second on the team behind Connor Murphy.

Martinez finishes his career with an 88-201–289 scoring line in 861 games. Among 2007 draftees, he ranks 17th in games played – of course, tremendous value for a fourth-round pick. His career +73 rating also ranks sixth in the class. Only five players – Pietrangelo, John Carlson, Mark Giordano, Ryan McDonagh, and Kris Russell – have blocked more shots than Martinez since he debuted.

All of us at PHR wish Martinez all the best as he ends the playing phase of his hockey career and congratulate him on his spectacular career.

Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images.

Jets’ Prospect Chaz Lucius Announces Retirement

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In an unfortunate announcement from Newport Sports Management Inc., Winnipeg Jets’ prospect Chaz Lucius is retiring from hockey due to medical concerns.

The announcement shared a statement from Chaz, where he openly shared his recent Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome diagnosis. In the statement, Chaz wrote,

“It is with great disappointment that I am announcing my retirement from playing professional hockey. Recently, I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which is a hereditary disorder that affects the connective tissue that stabilizes and supports the joints and organs throughout the body. As I struggled with incurring and recovering from various joint injuries over the past several years, I had thought I was just unlucky. With this diagnosis of EDS, I now realize that my body impacted by EDS could not handle the physical nature of playing hockey. Given this condition, my injury history, and the physical nature of hockey, I have been medically advised not to continue to play.“

In response, the Jets put out an immediate press release saying,

“After much discussion and consultation with Chaz, his representatives, and medical professionals, the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club fully supports his difficult decision to retire. Chaz’s condition and struggles with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) put him at risk of injury if he continues to play at the professional level, so we understand his choice. We wish Chaz all the best in his efforts to be an advocate for those dealing with EDS and hope for a bright future in front of him.“

Winnipeg selected Lucius with the 18th overall selection of the 2021 NHL Draft after an impressive few years with the United States National Team Development Program (USNTD). During his draft season, Lucius scored 13 goals and 18 points in 12 games playing for the USHL’s USNTD program and another 13 goals and 20 points in 13 games with the U.S. National U18 team.

He spent one year with the heralded University of Minnesota, scoring nine goals and 19 points in 24 contests with a +5 rating. Unfortunately, the Golden Gophers were eliminated in the Regional Finals of the National Tournament to in-state rival, Minnesota State University.

That was the end of Lucius’s time as a top prospect with Winnipeg. As he alluded to in his statement, Lucius has suffered a string of injuries over the last several years that have limited him to only 54 contests with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose since the 2022-23 season. Still, when healthy, Lucius was an effective secondary scorer, managing seven goals and 27 points.

There should understandably be some grace for Lucius when it comes to his inability to stay healthy during that stretch. Had he remained healthy throughout his professional career, the generic wear-and-tear that comes with professional ice hockey could have led to some long-standing physical issues when it comes to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Although it’s not the path he likely envisioned for himself, we at PHR send our congratulations to Lucius for being one of the rare few able to play even one game of professional hockey in North America and wish him the best for his next chapter.

Ilya Kovalchuk Announces Retirement

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Longtime NHL winger Ilya Kovalchuk has officially confirmed the end of his playing career, per Hockey News Hub on X.

Now 41, Kovalchuk is one of the most decorated wingers of the 21st century – even if his NHL career saw more than a few twists and turns. A dominant teenager with Spartak Moscow, then of the second-tier Russian league at the turn of the century, he was the first overall pick by the Thrashers in the 2001 draft.

Kovalchuk was the centerpiece of the fledgling Atlanta squad for seven and a half seasons, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting in his rookie year behind teammate Dany Heatley but capturing the league’s goal-scoring title with 41 in the 2003-04 campaign. He remained one of the league’s premier goal-scorers past the 2005 lockout, eclipsing the 50-goal mark twice with the Thrashers, although his throne as the league’s top left-wing sniper was quickly taken from him by countryman Alex Ovechkin.

In 2009-10, amid his sixth consecutive 40-goal campaign, the Thrashers dealt Kovalchuk to the Devils for what turned out to be an incredibly underwhelming return in retrospect – although they did flip the first-round pick they received in the deal to the Blackhawks to acquire longtime top-pair defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, even if those rewards were reaped after the franchise relocated to Winnipeg to become the second iteration of the Jets.

Of course, Kovalchuk’s time in New Jersey was incredibly tumultuous. Set to be a UFA in the summer of 2010, he returned to New Jersey on a record-breaking 17-year, $102MM contract that was quickly invalidated by the league for being too frontloaded. While the Devils and Kovalchuk agreed to a revised 15-year, $100MM deal, they were stripped of a first and third-round pick and were fined $3MM by the league.

After all that, Kovalchuk only played three seasons of the deal before abruptly retiring from the NHL, leaving $77MM in cash on the table to terminate his deal and return home. He played six seasons with SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League, including a stint during the 2013 lockout. He was unsurprisingly the KHL’s premier offensive talent during that timeframe, posting 138-189–327 in 298 games with SKA, winning the Gagarin Cup in 2015 and 2017 and scoring the championship-clinching goal both times.

Upon leading the KHL in scoring in 2017-18 with 63 points in 53 games and winning an Olympic MVP and Gold Medal, Kovalchuk opted to make an NHL comeback and landed a hefty three-year, $18.75MM deal with the Kings. Then in his mid-30s, he underwhelmed in L.A. and managed just 43 points in 81 games over a season and a half before he again opted to walk away from the money remaining on his deal midway through the 2019-20 campaign. He finished out that season with the Canadiens and Capitals – the former signed him to a one-year deal following his termination and flipped him to Washington at the deadline. After amassing 10-16–26 in 46 games split between the three clubs, Kovalchuk headed back to Russia with Avangard Omsk.

“Kovy” finished the shortened 2020-21 season with 17 points in 16 games for Avangard en route to a third Gagarin Cup championship. He stepped away into an off-ice role after that, even serving as Russia’s general manager at the 2022 Winter Olympics, but returned to the sheet where his career began with Spartak last season. He notched 4-4–8 in 20 games and went pointless in five playoff games before opting not to re-sign last summer.

Kovalchuk played 13 NHL seasons, posting a 443-433–876 scoring line in 926 games with a -146 rating. He averaged a remarkable 21:15 per game throughout his career, including a few seasons north of 24 with the Devils. For his first NHL stint from 2001 to 2013, no one scored more than Kovalchuk’s 417 goals. He remained the Jets’ franchise all-time goals leader until Mark Scheifele finally surpassed him last month.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Loui Eriksson Officially Announces Retirement

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Former NHL forward Loui Eriksson has officially announced his retirement after 16 NHL seasons (via his agency on Instagram).

Eriksson last played in the NHL during the 2021-22 season with the Arizona Coyotes, posting three goals and 16 assists in 73 games. His final professional season came in 2022-23 when he suited up for Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League.

At his best, Eriksson was a reliable 25+ goal and 70-point forward for the Dallas Stars. However, the Gothenburg, Sweden native fell on hard times after signing a massive free agent deal with the Vancouver Canucks in 2016 and was never able to get back to the numbers he posted in Dallas.

The 39-year-old was a staple of the Stars in the late 2000s and early 2010s before he was the central piece in the blockbuster trade that sent Tyler Seguin to Dallas and Eriksson to Boston. With the Bruins, Eriksson struggled in his first season but regained his form two years later when he posted 30 goals and 33 assists in 82 games and cashed in with the Canucks on a six-year $36MM deal.

In Vancouver, Eriksson became a beacon for criticism during the Jim Benning era, particularly in 2020 when the salary cap flattened out and the Canucks were forced to watch several talented players leave via free agency when they didn’t have cap space to sign them. Eriksson scored just 38 goals and 52 assists in 252 games with the Canucks before he was sent to Arizona as part of a package that was used to acquire Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland.

Eriksson finished his NHL career with 253 goals and 360 assists in 1,050 career NHL games. He was a six-time 20-goal scorer and had the best season of his career in 2010-11 with Dallas when he registered 27 goals and 46 assists in 79 games.

All of us at PHR extend our best wishes to Loui as he enters the next chapter of his life.

Alex Chiasson Announces Retirement

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A long-time middle-six scorer is officially hanging up his skates. Originally announced by himself and then shared by the National Hockey League Players’ Association, Alex Chiasson is retiring after spending a few years off the ice.

The Dallas Stars drafted Chiasson with the 38th overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft out of the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers program. Instead of immediately turning professional, Chiasson joined the Boston University Terriers for the 2009-10 NCAA season one year after they won the National Championship. Unfortunately, Chiasson would fail to reach the Frozen Four throughout his three-year tenure with Boston University.

He still became an effective playmaker at the collegiate level. He finished his NCAA career with 36 goals and 99 points in 108 games before signing his entry-level contract after the 2011-12 campaign. Chiasson started quickly with the AHL’s Texas Stars, scoring one goal and five points in nine contests.

Much of the next calendar year was spent in AHL Texas until Dallas recalled Chiasson in early April of the 2012-13 season to debut in the NHL. After scoring six goals and seven points in seven games to end the regular season, Chiasson became an NHL regular for the next decade.

Chiasson scored 13 goals and 35 points in 79 games during his official rookie season, which would be his last with the Stars. The following summer, he was acquired by the Ottawa Senators organization as a part of the return package for franchise icon Jason Spezza.

Although he became one of the better players from the trade for Spezza, his time in Canada’s capital was mostly disappointing. He finished his tenure in Ottawa with 19 goals and 40 points in 153 games before arduous contract negotiations led to a trade to the Calgary Flames in the summer of 2016.

After a solid year as a depth scorer for the Flames, Chiasson signed with the Washington Capitals for the 2017-18 season. He won his first and only Stanley Cup that year, scoring one goal and one assist in 16 playoff games for the Capitals.

It wasn’t until he joined the Edmonton Oilers that Chiasson experienced the most personal success of his career. During his time with the Oilers, Chiasson scored 42 goals and 78 points in 183 games, including a 22-goal campaign in the 2018-19 season.

Chiasson’s final game came on April 13, 2023, as a member of the Detroit Red Wings one year after spending the season with the Vancouver Canucks. He ended his career with 120 goals and 233 points in 651 games with another four goals and seven points in 37 postseason contests.

All of us at PHR extend our best wishes to Alex as he enters the next chapter of his life.

Blake Wheeler Unlikely To Resume NHL Career

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Winger Blake Wheeler has all but officially decided on retirement, as Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun relays. Neither Wheeler nor the NHL Players’ Association has released a statement. Still, the former Jets captain told Dan Leffelaar of the Beyond High Performance podcast earlier this week that “there’s only so much gas in the tank” emotionally for an 82-game regular season.

In July, Wheeler, 38, hit unrestricted free agency after completing a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the Rangers. He joined the Blueshirts for the final season of his NHL career after having the captaincy stripped from him in Winnipeg in 2022 and seeing the final season of his five-year, $41.25MM contract with an $8.25MM cap hit bought out a year later. There wasn’t much buzz around his services on the UFA market aside from a report in August from Shawn Hutcheon of The Fourth Period that the Bruins were considering extending him a professional tryout. One way or another that never came to fruition, and Wheeler didn’t appear with any club during training camp.

A serious leg injury sustained in February ended his final regular season prematurely. However, he did return to the active roster near the end of New York’s second-round playoff win over the Hurricanes. He was a frequent healthy scratch upon returning to the lineup, though, with a lone postseason appearance against the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final likely standing as his final NHL appearance. In 54 regular-season appearances with the Rangers, he posted nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points with a +2 rating while averaging a career-low 12:43 per game.

Wheeler was a highly touted prospect. In the 2004 draft, the Coyotes selected him fifth overall, immediately after eventual longtime teammate Andrew Ladd was taken off the board by the Hurricanes. However, he opted not to sign in Phoenix. He took the long route through college at the University of Minnesota before becoming a free agent in 2008 and signing with the Bruins. 

The right-winger’s debut season was solid, posting 21 goals and 45 points with a +36 rating in 81 games as Boston won 53 games and finished atop the Eastern Conference. He was one of many future under-25 impact players on that Bruins squad, featuring Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and David Krejčí in the infancies of their careers. However, after his goal-scoring dropped off slightly in his second and third years in the league, Boston traded him to the Thrashers before the 2011 deadline for Rich Peverley.

Wheeler racked up 17 points in 23 games down the stretch for Atlanta, giving Thrashers fans a bittersweet taste of things to come for his production before the team packed up and moved to Winnipeg in the offseason. Now entirely in the prime of his career at age 25, Wheeler kicked off a dominant nine-year stretch in Winnipeg that saw him record 569 points in 616 games, ranking eighth in the NHL scoring between the 2011-12 and 2018-19 campaigns. His 384 assists during that time were fourth, trailing only Nicklas Bäckström, Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. He received All-Star consideration eight years in a row and finished as high as eighth in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18 when he led the league with 68 assists in 81 outings.

After a 20-goal, 91-point showing in 2018-19, 2019-20 spelled out the beginning of Wheeler’s decline. He still managed a respectable 65 points in 71 games that year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, that was accompanied by an artificially high 12.2% shooting rate and a significant drop-off in his assist totals. He kept up reasonable offensive production in his final three seasons in Winnipeg, logging 161 points in 187 games. But the Minnesota native became a defensive liability as he aged and became a significant drag on the Jets’ possession quality control at even strength. Combined with just three playoff series wins during his time in Winnipeg, including a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final in which he had 21 points in 17 games, the Jets parted ways with their captain and bought him out.

While the end of Wheeler’s career may have been marred by declining all-around play and injuries, the former All-Star was a high-end top-line talent throughout the 2010s. The 6’5 “, 225-lb right-winger puts a bow on his career with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 regular-season games. He logged a +67 rating, posted 764 PIMs, and racked up nearly 3,000 career shots on goal, averaging 18:11 per game. He pairs that strong regular-season production with 10 goals and 45 points in 66 career postseason games. Pro Hockey Rumors congratulates Wheeler on a phenomenal career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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