BREAKING NEWS: Milan Hejduk retired from hockey. He will make a public announcement within a month.
Full story soon.
ADDED:
It is over! Milan Hejduk announced retirement after few months of silence. He didn´t get an offer from other NHL team and as there hasn´t been a free spot on the Colorado Avalanche roster, he confirmed his retirement exclusively to the Czech newspaper Blesk. „It´s over with hockey. I have to announce it official. There will be a news conference within a month,“ told to Czech media.
According to Hejduk, he wanted to retire after previous season, but his agent had persuade him to wait on possible new offers from other NHL teams. It didn´t happen. „If I wanted, I could play in Czech or in Russia for money, but I don´t want to go anywhere. I can´t say I am missing hockey. Now, I can practice my two sons, I am an asisstant coach of youth team. I am on the ice every day,“ said Hejduk.
In spite of Hejduk´s good mood and atmosophere in his private life, not everything ended like he wants. „It would be ideal to retire after winning the Stanley Cup, but I had to retire at some point. I am old and I didn´t want to destroy my health. I want to ski, the season is about to start,“ admits Hejduk and added how hard it was to be a NHL player: „Players doen´t sleep much in the season. Most of teammates took pills. Comebacks at 4 in the morning were crazy sometimes.“
Hejduk entered in the NHL in 1998, in the same year that Czech national team shocked all the world and won a gold medal at olympics in Nagano. Six years later, he contributed to bronze medal in Torino. Hejduk spent his entire career in Colorado Avalanche and holds a record for total played games by one player in Denver, 1020. He won the Cup in 2001 and Maurice Richard Trophy for the best goal scorer in 2003 thanks his 50 goals.
http://eurolanche.com/article.php?id=3810
