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Retirements

Minor Transactions: 8/4/25

August 4, 2025 at 7:56 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

As we creep a little closer to training camps starting up, there have been a handful of minor moves around the hockey world recently.  We’ll run through those here.

  • Veteran goaltender Anton Khudobin has announced his retirement at the age of 39, Shaiba.kz relays. Khudobin spent parts of 14 seasons in the NHL, compiling a 114-92-33 record with a 2.52 GAA and a .916 SV% with six different teams.  After spending most of 2022-23 in the minors, he opted to play in Russia but didn’t play much at the VHL or KHL levels.  Khudobin didn’t suit up at all last season but has now made his retirement official.
  • The Hurricanes’ affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, announced (Twitter link) the re-signing of center Nikita Pavlychev and the signing of defenseman Jacob Friend to one-year contracts. Pavlychev had his best AHL performance last season, picking up 25 points in 63 games after primarily playing in the ECHL for the previous four years.  As for Friend, he split last season between playing in Austria and Germany but has three years of playing in the minor pros in North America.
  • After being moved in the KHL just a few days ago, Matvei Guskov has a new team once again as he has signed with HK Sochi. The Wild drafted Guskov in the fifth round back in 2019 but he has struggled since then, especially last season where he had just four goals in 38 games spread between three other KHL teams.  Sochi’s rosters usually aren’t as deep so Guskov may have a pathway to a bigger role and more production now with this move.  Minnesota continues to hold his NHL signing rights indefinitely.
  • AHL Rockford, affiliate of the Blackhawks, announced the signing of defenseman Tyson Feist to a one-year deal. The 24-year-old only played in six AHL games last season, spending most of the year with ECHL Orlando where he had 17 points in 57 appearances.  However, Feist saw action in 32 AHL contests in 2023-24 and will be looking to see more regular action at that level in 2025-26.

AHL| Carolina Hurricanes| Chicago Blackhawks| KHL| Minnesota Wild| Retirements Anton Khudobin| Matvei Guskov

2 comments

Nathan Beaulieu Announces Retirement

July 23, 2025 at 9:21 am CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

Former first-round pick Nathan Beaulieu has announced his retirement from professional hockey, according to the NHLPA.

Beaulieu, 32, hangs up his skates after playing 471 NHL games for the Canadiens, Sabres, Jets, and Ducks. The longtime bottom-pairing defenseman last appeared with Anaheim in the 2022-23 season, spending the last two campaigns in Europe but playing sparingly due to injuries.

The Ontario native was the No. 17 overall pick of the 2011 draft by Montreal from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs after helping guide the team to a Memorial Cup championship and being named to the tournament’s All-Star team. He was a tantalizing junior prospect, never outright dominating offensively but still putting up strong point production with dominant defensive impacts while playing a highly physical brand of hockey.

While his physicality translated to the professional level, the other parts of his game only did so in short bursts. Beaulieu only ever topped 20 points in a season once, making a career-high 74 appearances for Montreal in 2016-17 while receiving significant power-play deployment for the only time in his career. He averaged 19:29 per game for the Habs that year, putting together a 4-24–28 scoring line with 102 blocks.

Aside from that, he was still a serviceable bottom-pairing piece for the Habs for a few years after emerging as a full-time NHLer in 2014-15. He ended up recording 60 points and a +19 rating in 225 games for the team that drafted him before he was traded to the Sabres in the 2017 offseason.

After the trade, Beaulieu was firmly relegated to being a No. 7 option. He never made more than 60 appearances in a season after that relative breakout of a 2016-17 campaign, averaging 15:27 per game for Buffalo, Winnipeg, and Anaheim over his final six NHL seasons.

Beaulieu’s final NHL season saw him thrown to the wolves on a severely understaffed Ducks defense in 2022-23, recording four points and a -23 rating in 52 games with ghastly possession numbers. That tanked his value the following summer and led to his move overseas to Switzerland’s EHC Kloten, where he only had two points in 13 games before a hand injury ended his season.

The veteran lefty signed on with Barys Astana of the KHL for 2024-25, but was released after eight games with financial issues forcing the club to part ways with all of its import players. He quickly landed with HC Nove Zamky of the Slovak Extraliga but did not make an appearance for them due to injury.

Beaulieu finishes his career with 12 goals, 86 assists, 98 points, and a -14 rating in 471 regular-season games while averaging 16:18 per night. He also had five points in 21 playoff games with Montreal and Winnipeg. All of us at PHR wish him the best in retirement.

Anaheim Ducks| Buffalo Sabres| Montreal Canadiens| Retirement| Retirements| Winnipeg Jets Nathan Beaulieu

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Jaroslav Halak Announces Retirement

July 18, 2025 at 8:08 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 7 Comments

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.

Boston Bruins| Montreal Canadiens| New York Islanders| New York Rangers| Newsstand| Retirement| Retirements| St. Louis Blues| Vancouver Canucks| Washington Capitals Jaroslav Halak

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Pat Maroon To Retire After The Season

March 22, 2025 at 2:27 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 6 Comments

Blackhawks winger Pat Maroon is in his 14th NHL season but there won’t be a 15th.  The veteran revealed to CHSN during today’s pregame show (Twitter link) that he plans to retire at the end of the season, citing a desire to start a new chapter with his family.

Maroon is in his first season with Chicago after signing a one-year, $1.3MM contract with them in free agency last summer.  He was brought in to play a mentoring role while taking a regular shift on the fourth line and has done just that, getting into 59 games this season where he has 16 points, 95 hits, and 81 penalty minutes in 11:37 of playing time per outing.

It felt like the 36-year-old was going to be a candidate to be moved at the trade deadline earlier this month to a team looking to add some extra depth and experience for the stretch run.  However, he indicated to the team last month that his preference was to remain with Chicago rather than be on the move for the second straight deadline.

Maroon was a sixth-round pick by Philadelphia back in 2006, going 171st overall.  He spent parts of four seasons in their farm system but never got a chance to play with the Flyers, eventually being traded to Anaheim in 2010.

While Maroon saw a bit of NHL action with the Ducks after the move, it took until the 2013-14 campaign for him to become a regular player for them at the age of 25.  He wound up spending parts of five years with them before he was traded to Edmonton at the 2016 deadline.  With the Oilers is where he had his best success offensively, notching 86 points in 154 games over parts of three years before being moved to New Jersey at the 2018 trade deadline.

Maroon then signed with St. Louis the following summer, winning a Stanley Cup with them in 2019 before moving on to Tampa Bay where he won two more in consecutive seasons.  Along the way, he went from being more of a second-line option as he was with Edmonton to more of an energetic bottom-six piece, one that spent parts of four years with the Lightning before being picked up at the deadline by Boston last season.

All told, Maroon has 125 goals and 195 assists along with 1,583 hits and 1,071 penalty minutes in 839 regular season games across eight different organizations heading into today’s action.  He also has suited up in 163 postseason contests, in the top 75 in NHL history in that regard where he has 53 points and those three Stanley Cup rings.   While Maroon has a few more weeks to add to those regular season numbers, it has certainly been a very solid career for someone who wound up being a late bloomer after working his way up from a long stint in the minors.

Photo courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.

Chicago Blackhawks| Newsstand| Retirements Pat Maroon

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Gabriel Bourque Announces Retirement

October 3, 2024 at 6:57 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

Veteran winger Gabriel Bourque has decided to call it a career.  The 34-year-old confirmed to Ciel 103’s Kevin Beaule that he has retired after 13 professional seasons.

Bourque was originally drafted back in 2009 by Nashville, going in the fifth round.  He spent parts of six seasons with the Preds before heading to Colorado for three more years, then Winnipeg for one.  He didn’t play at all in 2020-21 but opted to continue playing after that, spending the last three seasons suiting up with AHL Laval, Montreal’s affiliate but was limited to just 11 points in 43 games in 2023-24.

All told, Bourque ends his playing days with 413 career NHL appearances between the Predators, Avalanche, and Jets.  He collected 40 goals, 63 assists, and 736 hits in those outings in a little over 12 minutes a night.  He currently sits 44th in NHL games played from the 2009 draft class, a pretty good outcome for a fifth-round selection.

Meanwhile, Bourque was more productive in the minors.  He saw AHL action in parts of nine years, tallying 65 goals and 104 assists in 364 games over that span.  He won’t be walking away from hockey entirely, however, as he’s now an assistant coach at College Lionel-Groulx.

Retirements Gabriel Bourque

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Rick Bowness Announces Retirement

May 6, 2024 at 9:56 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 7 Comments

Jets head coach Rick Bowness is expected to announce his retirement later today, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports. Winnipeg promptly released a statement confirming the news.

Bowness, 69, had mulled retirement two seasons ago after the Stars announced he wouldn’t be returning as their bench boss, but he was offered a two-year agreement with a one-year club option from the Jets to stay in the game. Speaking to reporters last week, Bowness said the team hadn’t yet decided on whether or not to exercise its option and needed to talk with his family and the team about his future.

After a 40-year career behind NHL benches as a head coach and assistant, Bowness was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for the first time last week. He guided Winnipeg to a second-place finish in the Central Division this season with 110 points and 52 wins, the latter of which tied for the most in Jets/Thrashers franchise history.

Bowness began his time in the NHL as a player. After being selected in the second round of the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft by the Atlanta Flames, Bowness made his NHL debut the following season. The right winger didn’t establish himself as an everyday NHLer until a move to the Red Wings in 1977, who acquired him for cash that summer. He played a career-high 61 games that season before spending the next three seasons as a major-league/minor-league tweener with the Blues and Jets organization, last suiting up in the NHL for the previous incarnation of Winnipeg with 25 points in 45 games in the 1980-81 campaign.

Still playing in the Jets organization, Bowness began his career in coaching as a player-coach for AHL Sherbrooke in 1982-83. He didn’t coach the team during his final season as a player with Sherbrooke in 1983-84 but took a job as an NHL assistant with the Jets immediately after retiring. He remained in an assistant role in Winnipeg until 1987 when the organization reassigned him to the minors to become the head coach of their new AHL affiliate in Moncton. A year and a half later, Bowness was back in the NHL – this time getting his first shot as a head coach in the majors. He was the interim boss for the back half of the 1988-89 campaign after Winnipeg fired Dan Maloney midseason. It wasn’t terribly successful, though, and he wasn’t brought back after finishing the season with an 8-17-3 record.

Bowness immediately landed with the Bruins organization and spent the following three seasons there — two as the head coach of AHL Maine and one as Boston’s head coach. He guided the team to a 36-32-12 record in 1991-92 and a Conference Final loss to the Penguins, the eventual Stanley Cup champions.

In the summer of 1992, he headed to the expansion Senators to serve as the first coach in franchise history. Nobody could have bolstered one of the most poorly assembled rosters in league history, though, and Bowness led the struggling franchise to a 39-178-18 record (.204 points percentage) before being let go midway through his fourth season in Canada’s capital.

Bowness spent the next 20-plus years working for the Islanders, Coyotes, Canucks, Lightning and Stars, mainly serving as an assistant or associate. He was briefly the head coach of the Isles for a time in 1997 and 1998 and served as the interim bench boss for the Coyotes in 2003-04 for the final 20 games of the season.

After going 2-12-3-3 down the stretch with Phoenix, Bowness wouldn’t get another try as a head coach for another 15 years. He took over as interim for Dallas midway through the 2019-20 campaign after Jim Montgomery was dismissed due to unprofessional conduct, later revealed to be an alcohol-related incident that led Montgomery to seek treatment for alcoholism and eventually return behind the bench for the Bruins last year. Going 20-13-5 until COVID paused the season, Bowness returned in the bubble playoffs and oversaw the Stars’ first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 20 years.

Dallas fell to the Lightning and missed the playoffs the following shortened season but returned to postseason play under Bowness in 2022. After going 46-30-6 and losing in the first round to the Flames, though, the Stars and Bowness mutually parted ways, paving the way for him to return to where his coaching career started in Winnipeg.

Bowness ended his career on a high note, posting a 98-57-9 record and guiding the Jets to back-to-back playoff appearances, even though they both resulted in quick first-round exits. He officially exits the game after 38 seasons behind an NHL bench, with parts of 14 coming as a head coach. His career record stands at 310-408-48-37 in 803 games, a .439 points percentage.

Winnipeg now becomes the seventh team with an active head coach vacancy. No candidates have been linked to the job yet.

PHR wishes Bowness and his family all the best in retirement and congratulations him on one of the lengthiest coaching careers in league history.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Newsstand| Retirements| Winnipeg Jets Rick Bowness

7 comments

Brad Malone To Retire After The Season

April 18, 2024 at 6:57 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

Veteran winger Brad Malone is in his 13th professional season and it will be his last.  AHL Bakersfield announced that this will be his final year and that the Oilers farmhand will be retiring at the conclusion of the upcoming postseason.

The 34-year-old was originally drafted by Colorado, going 105th overall back in 2007 but didn’t turn pro until the 2011-12 campaign.  Malone spent parts of three seasons with the Avs before signing on for two years in Carolina, followed by one with Washington.

In 2017, Malone joined Edmonton in free agency and has stuck with that organization ever since; he’s on his fourth contract with the team.  He has spent most of his time with the Condors during that time but did get into 41 games with the Oilers, ten of which came last season.  This year, the veteran has 17 points through 48 contests in the minors with two games left on their regular season schedule.

All told, Malone will wrap up his career with 217 appearances at the top level where he had 32 points.  He also has suited up in 551 AHL contests so far, tallying 290 points, a quality career for a player selected in the middle of the draft.  Now, he’ll look to go out on a high note with a strong postseason run with the Condors having already sewn up a spot in the Pacific Division.

AHL| Edmonton Oilers| Retirements Brad Malone

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Wayne Simmonds Confirms Retirement

March 18, 2024 at 10:15 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 10 Comments

March 18: Simmonds has officially announced his retirement and will sign a one-day contract with the Flyers, per a team release. He’ll sign the contract and be honored by the team on April 13, the second-to-last home game of Philadelphia’s season.

Jan. 26: Free agent winger Wayne Simmonds told Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press on Friday that he won’t continue his 15-season NHL career. The 35-year-old has yet to file retirement paperwork with the league but confirmed he will not attempt a comeback.

Simmonds last suited up in 2022-23, making 18 appearances with the Maple Leafs. The Scarborough, Ontario native reached UFA status after completing a two-year, $1.8MM extension signed with Toronto in June 2021.

He played for six NHL clubs during his career. The first of those was the Kings, who selected him with the final pick of the second round in the 2007 draft from the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack after racking up 49 points and 112 PIMs in 66 games.

Simmonds spent the following season back in junior hockey, breaking out for his first point-per-game campaign and winning gold with Canada at the 2008 World Junior Championship. That was enough of a development jump for the Kings, who named Simmonds to their opening-night roster in 2008-09.

The Kings struggled that season, finishing three games below .500 and scoring only 2.46 goals per game, but Simmonds’ rookie performance was promising. He didn’t earn Calder Trophy consideration, but he played in all 82 games while posting 23 points in a bottom-six role.

His sophomore season wasn’t his defining campaign, but it was a large step forward. The Kings offense went from 28th to seventh in 2009-10, and Simmonds’ 16 goals and 40 points (along with 116 PIMs) helped kickstart the jump. He finished with a team-high +22 rating, too, earning him a handful of Selke Trophy votes.

He took a small step back in the third and final season of his entry-level contract, though, seeing his goal and point output drop to 14 and 30, respectively. With the Kings exiting their late 2000s rebuild and looking to build a more veteran core around Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty, they decided to cut bait with Simmonds and ship him, along with center prospect Brayden Schenn, to the Flyers in the 2011 offseason in exchange for established top-six threat Mike Richards.

The trade worked out well for the Kings, who won two Stanley Cups over the next three seasons with Richards anchoring their second line. It also worked out quite well for Simmonds, who scored 28 goals in his first season with Philadelphia and spent parts of eight years in the City of Brotherly Love.

With the Flyers, Simmonds became one of the most visible power forwards in the league, inking a six-year, $23.85MM extension within two years of the trade and eventually eclipsing the 30-goal mark twice. He racked up 203 goals, 175 assists and 378 points over his 584 games for the Flyers, consistently logging top-six minutes and serving an important leadership role, as evidenced by his Mark Messier Leadership Award win in his final season with the team.

As the extension wrapped up, though, it was clear Simmonds was in an early decline. His totals had steadily dropped since his 32-goal, 60-point season in 2015-16, and the Flyers decided to part ways with the fan-favorite near the 2019 trade deadline. They dealt him to the Predators, who were two years removed from a Stanley Cup Final appearance, but his play outside of Philadelphia stagnated further. He recorded one goal and three points in 17 games with Nashville after the trade and played in two of six games during their first-round loss to the Stars.

Simmonds spent the following four seasons playing for the Devils, Sabres and Maple Leafs in a reduced role, seeing his ice time dip below 10 minutes per game by the 2021-22 season. He was waived twice over the course of the 2022-23 campaign, recording two assists in 18 games to close out his career.

He ends his time in the NHL with 263 goals, 263 assists and 526 points, along with 1,313 PIMs, over the course of 1,037 games. He also added 22 points in 53 career playoff games.

PHR extends its best wishes to Simmonds in his post-hockey career and congratulations him on a lengthy and impactful NHL stint.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Buffalo Sabres| Los Angeles Kings| Nashville Predators| New Jersey Devils| Newsstand| Philadelphia Flyers| Retirement| Retirements| Toronto Maple Leafs Wayne Simmonds

10 comments

Tyler Ennis Announces Retirement

January 17, 2024 at 11:24 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 9 Comments

Longtime NHL forward Tyler Ennis announced his retirement today, per an announcement from his first and most tenured team, the Sabres. The 34-year-old was playing with Adler Mannheim in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) but has terminated his contract and stepped away from the game after sustaining a neck injury during Champions Hockey League play last November.

Ennis gave the following statement on his retirement, translated from German:

After working hard to get healthy with our great team, I ultimately decided to quit hockey. I would like to thank [Mannheim general manager Daniel] Hopp, my teammates, the coaches, our medical staff and of course our great fans for their support. I will continue to cheer on the Adler Mannheim vigorously in the future.

The diminutive, versatile forward was a true top-six threat in his early days with the Sabres, but multiple serious injuries in his prime forced him into a depth scoring role as he remained effective later into his 30s. An unrestricted free agent since the end of the 2021-22 campaign, Ennis has spent the last 18 months playing overseas with Mannheim and SC Bern in the Swiss National League. Before sustaining the career-ending neck injury, Ennis had five assists through seven games with Mannheim and posted 13-20–33 in 37 games with Bern last season.

The Sabres selected Ennis with the 26th overall pick of the 2008 draft, their second selection of the first round, selecting hulking defenseman Tyler Myers 14 picks earlier. Ennis spent one season in junior hockey after his draft, lighting up the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers and recording seven points in six games for Canada at the 2009 World Juniors as the John Tavares-led squad captured gold. He made the transition to the pro game the following year, spending most of the season with AHL Portland, with whom he finished second in scoring with 23-42–65 in 69 games.

His strong minor-league showing earned him a full-time gig in Buffalo the following season. His rookie campaign wasn’t strong enough to get him Calder Trophy recognition, but it wasn’t bad by any means. His 20 goals and 49 points both finished fourth on the Sabres that year, part of a ninth-place offense that led Buffalo to its most recent playoff berth.

Ennis’ production increased the following season, producing at a 58-point pace. There was one key issue: a left ankle injury limited him to 48 games on the year. He would play 80 games in a season just once more throughout his career, in 2013-14. That Sabres team was one of the least memorable of the modern era, finishing with only 21 wins and 52 points. Ennis led that squad in goals with 21, earning himself a five-year, $23MM extension that summer as a result.

He again led the Sabres in scoring in 2014-15, posting 20 goals and 46 points on a team designed to tank for Connor McDavid in the 2015 draft. The lottery balls gave them the second-overall pick, though, giving them Jack Eichel as a consolation prize.

Unfortunately for Ennis, that season was his last near the top of a team’s depth chart. Upper-body and groin injuries limited him to a combined 74 games over the following two seasons, during which time his production tanked – just eight goals and 24 points – while seeing his ice time dip below 15 minutes per game. That was the end of Ennis’ tenure in Buffalo, as they dealt him and Marcus Foligno to the Wild in June 2017 in exchange for Jason Pominville and Marco Scandella.

In Minnesota, Ennis regained his health but not his production. His lone season with the Wild saw him post 8-14–22 in 73 games, averaging fourth-line minutes on the season. The Wild bought out the final season of his $4.6MM cap hit contract that summer, making him a UFA.

He didn’t last long on the open market. Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas signed Ennis to a one-year, $650K contract to continue his career in Toronto one week after Minnesota bought him out. While he saw even more limited usage than he did with the Wild, Ennis’ 12 goals for Toronto were his first time reaching double digits in four years.

Ennis stayed in Canada but made an intra-provincial move the following summer, signing a one-year deal for a more increased role with the Senators. He responded well, posting 16-21–37 in 70 total games in 2019-10, including a deadline move to the Oilers shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the regular season. His 14:43 average that season was the most he’d averaged since leaving Buffalo.

He continued to bounce between Edmonton and Ottawa over the following two seasons, returning for second stints in each city. Between 2020 and 2022, Ennis recorded 27-43–70 in 157 games while seeing third-line minutes. Still a capable point producer, it was puzzling not to see him field any offers in the summer of 2022 and head overseas to continue his pro career.

There had been rumblings of a PTO for Ennis during last year’s training camp cycle, but none came to fruition. The 5-foot-9 forward wraps up his NHL career with 144-202–346 in 700 games, including 13 game-winning goals and a 15:10 time-on-ice average per game.

PHR wishes Ennis well in his recovery from his neck injury and congratulates him on a spectacular career.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Buffalo Sabres| Edmonton Oilers| Minnesota Wild| Ottawa Senators| Retirement| Retirements| Toronto Maple Leafs Tyler Ennis

9 comments

Paul Stastny Announces Retirement

October 31, 2023 at 5:40 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 8 Comments

Free agent forward Paul Stastny has confirmed his retirement from the NHL after a 17-season, 1,145-game career in an interview Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic published Tuesday.

The 37-year-old was a key two-way center for most of his career.  Drafted in the second round by Colorado back in 2005, Stastny went on to play in eight seasons with the Avs where he made an immediate impact offensively, averaging nearly a point per game in his rookie season, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting.  By the time his tenure with Colorado wrapped up, he was more of a defensive threat than an offensive one but that didn’t stop him from having a long career.

Stastny signed with St. Louis in time for the 2014-15 season where he spent parts of four seasons before being traded to Winnipeg as a rental at the trade deadline in 2018.  After a two-year stop in Vegas in 2018-19 and 2019-20, he went back to Winnipeg for two more seasons before joining Carolina last season where he was down to 22 points in 73 games while playing exclusively in their bottom six.

Stastny acknowledged to LeBrun that there was some interest in him during the summer but he decided he wanted to wait it out for a bit to see how he felt.  Then, as time progressed, he felt that retirement was the right choice for him.  It wasn’t his intention to make his decision public, telling LeBrun that “I kind of came into the league quietly and I’m leaving the league quietly. That’s the way I like it.”  He hasn’t ruled out returning to hockey in some sort of front office capacity down the road but that’s not on the immediate horizon.

Stastny hangs up his skates after 1,195 career NHL games where he had 293 goals and 529 assists.  His 822 points put him in 20th place among U.S.-born players in league history.

Carolina Hurricanes| Colorado Avalanche| Newsstand| Retirements| St. Louis Blues| Vegas Golden Knights| Winnipeg Jets Paul Stastny

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