Shocking retirement announcements in hockey (a la Andrew Luck)

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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Okay, we all know Andrew Luck, right in the prime of his career but battling injuries, retired from the NFL. What comparison I am trying to find is where in hockey was there a shocker like that? I don't mean Bobby Orr, or Cam Neely, who were at similar ages because they were hurt for a while, missing all sorts of time before they hung them up. I mean who came out of left field to make the announcement?

Think Barry Sanders for instance back in 1999. That came out of nowhere.

I know there are those stories in hockey, but not a lot off the top of my head. We knew Gretzky was on his way out in 1999, it wasn't a shock. Mario in 1997 was always "will he or won't he" the entire season. And even though he had some hockey left in him, Ray Bourque, or even Patrick Roy, retiring was not a wholesale shock, they had a full career and were older.

I am talking about a star player who is young and shocks the hockey world with the announcement. Something no one expected.

Guy Lafleur wasn't the same player in 1984-'85 anymore, he had 70 points in 80 games in 1984, not very Lafleur-like. Then 5 points in 19 games playing in Lemaire's stifling system. It may have been shocking, but was it THAT shocking?

I am trying to remember if Dryden leaving the Habs after 1979 was known ahead of time or not. Comes off a Vezina and a Cup and he is only turning 32 that summer.
 

TheDevilMadeMe

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Aug 28, 2006
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Syl Apps? I don't know how shocking it really was though, because he wasn't the first player who decided he could make more money doing an office job.

Maybe Dryden? Retired before my time.

I really don't think anyone really expected Lemieux to actually retire the first time, though there had been some speculation about it, so it didn't completely come out of nowhere.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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i imagine dryden and lemaire both retiring after cup #4, with bowman also leaving the habs, must have been a huge shock.

i guess lemaire didn't retire from hockey per se, he went to the swiss league. but still, i don't think anyone would have expected him to walk away like that. he was a twelve year vet and the oldest guy on the habs, but he certainly wasn't washed up. he led the playoffs in goals and points (tied with lafleur in points) and led the finals in both categories outright. idk, i wasn't born yet, but i would have expected him to be like beliveau or the richards or cournoyer, or later gainey and robinson, and play in that uniform forever.
 
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VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
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How Swede it is!
  • Kenny Jonsson, the 2-year captain of the New York Islanders, and often considered great underrated defenseman, left the NHL at age 29 to raise his kids in his native Sweden. He had scored goals in two Olympics prior to his NHL retirement, but it is his 4 assists in the post-NHL gold-medal 2006 Olympics that he is most fond of.
  • Hakan Loob scored 50 goals and was the NHL's 1st team all star in 1988 and the following season the right winger contributed 17 playoff points in 22 postseason games as the Flames won the Stanley Cup and the 28 year old suddenly retired to go back to Sweden.
  • Kent Nilsson had two 100+ point WHA seasons and two 100+ point NHL seasons before at age 30 the Swede took his game back to Europe, where he tore up the Italian and Swiss leagues.
 

fahad203

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Oct 3, 2009
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How Swede it is!
  • Kenny Jonsson, the 2-year captain of the New York Islanders, and often considered great underrated defenseman, left the NHL at age 29 to raise his kids in his native Sweden. He had scored goals in two Olympics prior to his NHL retirement, but it is his 4 assists in the post-NHL gold-medal 2006 Olympics that he is most fond of.
  • Hakan Loob scored 50 goals and was the NHL's 1st team all star in 1988 and the following season the right winger contributed 17 playoff points in 22 postseason games as the Flames won the Stanley Cup and the 28 year old suddenly retired to go back to Sweden.
  • Kent Nilsson had two 100+ point WHA seasons and two 100+ point NHL seasons before at age 30 the Swede took his game back to Europe, where he tore up the Italian and Swiss leagues.

Wow, I was just going post this about Loob and Nilsson

Especially Nilsson, goes from NHL to Italian league. Which was very shocking to say the least. He was 30 and playing for the Oilers which was the best team in that decade
 

JackSlater

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Apr 27, 2010
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I would guess that Carl Brewer walking away in 1965 was a bit of a shock. 25 years old, already three times a post season all star, playing on a consistent Stanley Cup contender that had already helped him to three championships. Imlach though.
 

VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
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Wow, I was just going post this about Loob and Nilsson

Especially Nilsson, goes from NHL to Italian league. Which was very shocking to say the least. He was 30 and playing for the Oilers which was the best team in that decade
132 points in 35 games in Italy... no wonder he quickly headed for the Swiss league!
 

MadLuke

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Jan 18, 2011
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Dryden was my first thought when reading the title, but it was way before my time so I am not sure retirement where shocking before the salary a player leave on the table got massive or more seen has changing job (I imagine that for a while people did not really had the money to fully retire before 30 from their sport career).
 

VanIslander

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Sep 4, 2004
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Frank McGee.

He's the most prolific scorer in Stanley Cup history, led the Silver Seven to a dynasty over 4 seasons and then, at the mere age of 23, retired to take on a government job, as per the expectations of his high-class family.

23.

He was inducted into the HHOF in the first year of inductions. No one will ever score goals at the rate he did in Stanley Cup competition.

Staggering.

History will still be in AWE of that a century from now.
 

JianYang

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Sep 29, 2017
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Dryden was the first name that came to my mind.

Its been a while since I read his book, but I think he had planned his retirement well ahead of time.

What I'm not sure about is if he also made his intentions known to the public ahead of time too.
 

Doctor No

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Oct 26, 2005
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I recall Patrick Roy's retirement as reasonably shocking at the time (even given his age).

I was visiting my parents and away from the UNIX box that my site was stored on, and couldn't update things for a full two weeks.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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I recall Patrick Roy's retirement as reasonably shocking at the time (even given his age).

I was visiting my parents and away from the UNIX box that my site was stored on, and couldn't update things for a full two weeks.

i was shocked too, both that he would retire after coughing up a 3-1 series lead and later that he wouldn't change his mind and dial it back even with paul and teemu joining up to form a superteam.

the timing also contributed to the shock. in a SCF dominated by two french-canadian goalies, one the only credible threat to roy's records and the other a new guy in the midst of the best single-season playoff performance since 1993, roy announces his retirement in an effort to either upstage them or at least insert himself into the conversation. classic overly competitive/petty roy.
 

double5son10

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Jan 20, 2011
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I am trying to remember if Dryden leaving the Habs after 1979 was known ahead of time or not. Comes off a Vezina and a Cup and he is only turning 32 that summer.

Maybe Dryden? Retired before my time.

No surprise at all. Dryden had almost retired after the 1978 playoffs. Management convinced him to stay another year and throughout that 1978-79 season the Canadiens tried to work out a plan with Dryden to keep him on into the 80s, i.e. playing a limited schedule of his chosing (at full salary). He was unswayed. Following the '79 Cup victory Dryden reached out to Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, about going to Russia to train and learn for a year, but after some back and forth the Soviets turned him down. After that happened Dryden officially announced his retirement in July of '79.

Two from the Canadiens during the 70s were the retirement of #4 defenseman Bill Nyrop, whom after three Cup wins came to camp for the '78-79 season and then walked away from the team after a few days.
There was also Robin Sadler, the Canadiens top pick in the '75 draft (#9 overall), who signed a three year contract, came to his first camp and then walked away after only a week, saying the pressure was too great. Returned his signing bonus and went home to Vancouver. Obviously neither were of the stature of Dryden (or Luck) but both were definite surprises.
 

Staniowski

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Jan 13, 2018
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No surprise at all. Dryden had almost retired after the 1978 playoffs. Management convinced him to stay another year and throughout that 1978-79 season the Canadiens tried to work out a plan with Dryden to keep him on into the 80s, i.e. playing a limited schedule of his chosing (at full salary). He was unswayed. Following the '79 Cup victory Dryden reached out to Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, about going to Russia to train and learn for a year, but after some back and forth the Soviets turned him down. After that happened Dryden officially announced his retirement in July of '79.

Two from the Canadiens during the 70s were the retirement of #4 defenseman Bill Nyrop, whom after three Cup wins came to camp for the '78-79 season and then walked away from the team after a few days.
There was also Robin Sadler, the Canadiens top pick in the '75 draft (#9 overall), who signed a three year contract, came to his first camp and then walked away after only a week, saying the pressure was too great. Returned his signing bonus and went home to Vancouver. Obviously neither were of the stature of Dryden (or Luck) but both were definite surprises.
In addition to offering Dryden a limited schedule, they also offered him a job practicing law for Molson Breweries, the owners of the Habs, so that he could play hockey and do legal work at the same time.

They also tried hard to keep Lemaire, offering him a lot more money.
 

JianYang

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Sep 29, 2017
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i was shocked too, both that he would retire after coughing up a 3-1 series lead and later that he wouldn't change his mind and dial it back even with paul and teemu joining up to form a superteam.

the timing also contributed to the shock. in a SCF dominated by two french-canadian goalies, one the only credible threat to roy's records and the other a new guy in the midst of the best single-season playoff performance since 1993, roy announces his retirement in an effort to either upstage them or at least insert himself into the conversation. classic overly competitive/petty roy.

Roy was a surprise in the sense that I don't recall rumblings that he was planning to retire, but he already had a full career, and had he hung on, we are only maybe looking at a couple more seasons.

I simply believe after that playoff, that Roy was convinced he could no longer play on the level he expected from himself. I also recall that he was developing arthritis in his hips, which probably helped the decision along too.
 
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Nick Hansen

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Sep 28, 2017
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The way Peter Forsberg finally ended his career was a bit surprising to me. Of course, he had kind of been semi-retired for a few years before that but that he came back to the NHL only to decide to quit his career after two games surprised me at the time. I guess he felt he couldn't perform as he would've liked to.
 
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frisco

Some people claim that there's a woman to blame...
Sep 14, 2017
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I more shocked by some of the retirement threads of guys that have been long gone for like five years but have been technically active playing in the Peruvian B league or something.

My Best-Carey
 
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vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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Roy was a surprise in the sense that I don't recall rumblings that he was planning to retire, but he already had a full career, and had he hung on, we are only maybe looking at a couple more seasons.

I simply believe after that playoff, that Roy was convinced he could no longer play on the level he expected from himself. I also recall that he was developing arthritis in his hips, which probably helped the decision along too.

agree with all that. but i just figured roy being the competitive maniac that he is he wld have kept coming back every year even despite his better judgment because he just couldn’t help himself.

it had to eat him up that his career ended with him getting upset after coughing up a 3-1 lead. and i imagine be had to have felt very enticed by colorado’s chances after the 04 offseason.
 

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