He's obviously not a number in the rafters guy, but Gunnar has played here for 7 seasons and 325 games (plus 61 playoff games). He was a genuine contributor to our franchise's first Cup and his SCF game 2 OT winner is without question one of the most important goals in franchise history. Ignore the urinal story with Berube and it is no less important. We don't win that series if we come back to STL down 2-0. The story after the fact is just icing on the cake.
This is probably the end of the NHL line for Gunnar, which is a huge bummer. He turns 35 in November, has built a reputation as injury-prone and will be coming off a major knee injury. He's only played 48 games in the last 2 seasons (plus 6 playoff games) and the underlying numbers don't look good. I can't see him earning more than a PTO considering all that. If I were him, I'd be looking at my finances and thinking about calling it a career. He's earned $20M+ in his career and he doesn't strike me as a guy with no financial sense. If he's not thinking about calling it a career, then it probably makes sense to play in Europe. Fewer games, less physical, closer to home and he could probably earn a high enough salary that it would at least be in the ballpark of an NHL-minimum once you factor in next season's escrow withholdings.
Pro sports are ruthless and brutal. It sucks if this is it for his NHL career. If it is the end, at least he got to lift the Cup and score a massive contributing goal to that championship. This was my computer background for about a year and is one of my favorite pictures from the Cup run:
Hell of a moment Boom Boom.