Shocking retirement announcements in hockey (a la Andrew Luck)

[Neutrinos]

Quite a few Europeans have been mentioned, but I think we need to distinguish between players who quit hockey vs players who simply continued their career overseas

This thread is supposed to be about players who retired from hockey

 

[Fixxer]

Kovalchuk leaving for the KHL.

He's been a bit of a hired gun, à la Radulov. Doesn't really belong to any team except the Russian national team.

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.

I guess the concussions also started to make him think about retirement or anyway, play in a lesser league for some time.

A bit like Andy Mcdonald's "surprise" retirement while still being pretty effective in St-Louis.

 

[Fixxer]

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.

I didn't know about the arthritis but Roy did retire and said (maybe only in French) that exactly, that his game was not at the level it was before. Left when he felt he wasn't as effective as he had been. I agree that pain was a factor (possibly on his performance) but even more as physical pain is crap!!!

-- Well, retired you know ...

 

[Big Phil]

i think the most recent example is scott niedermayer after his conn smythe/brother cup. he came back, of course.

I remember that, and Selanne did it as well. It was strange, but right away people exposed it for what it was. It was a cap issue. So two veterans "retire" then come back near the end of the year and basically you've got the same Ducks team for a Cup run. You know, Niedermayer was never the same sort of defenseman after 2007. I have my issues with how he gets overrated on here and such but there is still no doubt he was an elite defenseman in 2007.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Jimmy Carson

 

[Nick Hansen]

Jimmy Carson

I thought of him as well but was it shocking? I wasn't conscious enough at the time to know but to me it seems like his career mostly slowly fizzled out after a flying start to his career.

 

[MS]

It's been mentioned, but Scott Niedermayer's retirement at age 33 after just winning the Conn Smythe and being runner-up for the Norris is the most shocking NHL retirement in modern history. Of course, it only lasted 30 games, but was out of nowhere when it happened. Nothing else is really close.

Patrick Roy was 37 but his retirement was still a shock out of nowhere as well. Was coming off one of the best seasons of his career and still elite. Could have played for several more years.

 

[Mandar]

Mark Pavelich "retired" (actually quit) the Rangers in the last half of the 85-86 season. He didn't see eye to eye with Ted Sator (most of the players felt the same way), and just quit and went home.

He did come back for very brief stints with the North Stars and Sharks, but when he "retired" on the Rangers.....it was a definitely shocking situation.

 

[The Panther]

Jimmy Carson doesn't really fit the thread because he had a gradual slow-down of his pro-career. He might have the most downward-inclined slope of any NHL career:

-- most goals as a teen in NHL history
-- age 20: traded for Gretzky
-- age 25: traded for Dixon Ward
-- age 26/27: in IHL


But my thread-answer is The Flames' Jim Peplinski. He won the Cup in 1989, still in his twenties and healthy, then retired at the start of the next season. Sure, Terry Crisp had scratched him a bit in the playoffs, but if he could have stuck out one more season, Crisp would have been gone, and then a year or two later he could have joined the Sens or Lightning and scored free-agency money.

There was a funny story in the Calgary newsaper that Peplinski got a call in about 1994, asking him to join an old-timers' game, which was for 40+ year olds. Peplinski was 34 at the time.

 

[Fixxer]

I thought of him as well but was it shocking? I wasn't conscious enough at the time to know but to me it seems like his career mostly slowly fizzled out after a flying start to his career.

I don't know if this was the case, but being trade for #99, you can never be good enough for people. Possibly an overwhelming pressure to try and be 2 times the player he was. Was Elite though, scoring 100 point and I think 50 goals under 20 years of age. I read in the past that some guys said he was not made for the NHL environment, too serious or anyway, not meant to be an NHL player long term.

 

[Nick Hansen]

I don't know if this was the case, but being trade for #99, you can never be good enough for people. Possibly an overwhelming pressure to try and be 2 times the player he was. Was Elite though, scoring 100 point and I think 50 goals under 20 years of age. I read in the past that some guys said he was not made for the NHL environment, too serious or anyway, not meant to be an NHL player long term.

Yeah, I think he went into finance after hockey. Clearly a guy that had other interests in life than hockey. It wasn't hockey or nothing for him as is the case for many others.

 

[Terry Yake]

I remember that, and Selanne did it as well. It was strange, but right away people exposed it for what it was. It was a cap issue. So two veterans "retire" then come back near the end of the year and basically you've got the same Ducks team for a Cup run. You know, Niedermayer was never the same sort of defenseman after 2007. I have my issues with how he gets overrated on here and such but there is still no doubt he was an elite defenseman in 2007.

unfortunately it cost them andy mcdonald

 

[Tom Polakis]

I went to the 6th Coyotes game after the 2004-05 lockout, in which Brett Hull was supposed to play against his old team, the Wings. We learned on the way to the arena that he had called it quits. Not shocking at age 41, but sort of out of the blue. He finished his career with a season with 0 goals and 1 assist.

 

[fish7]

As a St Louis Blues fan ------ Chuck Lefley at the age of 27 only 1 year after setting the Blues season record for Goals scored.

This was my first thought when I saw this thread you beat me to it

 

[Moose Head]

Mike Bossy might be a candidate. Yeah he missed a lot of games his final year, but I don’t recall hearing too much how much his back was shot that it was career threatening.

 

[crobro]

Bobby Clarke

Brian Sutter

 

[Staniowski]

Mike Bossy might be a candidate. Yeah he missed a lot of games his final year, but I don’t recall hearing too much how much his back was shot that it was career threatening.

Bossy talked some about retirement during his final season - '86-'87 - but I can't remember how widely it was known. He had injured his back during training camp (I think) at the start of that season, and was injured throughout the season, missing quite a few games, and scoring less than usual due to the injury.

He missed all of '87-'88 but had still not retired. He had his back worked on and wanted to return.

I think he and the Isles had some type of falling out, announcing that he wouldn't be playing for them again.

Apparently the Kings contacted Bossy (in the summer of '88) and wanted him to come and play with Gretzky if he was able to play again. But in Oct. 88 he announced his retirement.

 

[The Panther]

I went to the 6th Coyotes game after the 2004-05 lockout, in which Brett Hull was supposed to play against his old team, the Wings. We learned on the way to the arena that he had called it quits. Not shocking at age 41, but sort of out of the blue. He finished his career with a season with 0 goals and 1 assist.

Right, what was the deal there? Why did Hull suddenly retire six games in?

 

[Sonic Disturbance]

Robert Svehla was a beast with the Leafs in his one season, then just retired. I can't remember why... he wasn't offered a contract/lowballed?

 

[vikash1987]

Jim Carey? He went from being a Vezina goaltender in Washington one minute to then getting traded and walking away from hockey at the age of 24. I have vague memories that this was shocking at the time.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

He wasn't a star, but the saga of Todd Bergen deserves mention.

Bergen was called up from the AHL's Hershey Bears in 1985 and scored 16 points in his first 11 NHL games with the Flyers. In the playoffs, Bergen scored 13 points in 17 games. However, Bergen injured his abdominal muscle sometime between the regular season and the playoffs. Mike Keenan thought he was malingering and ordered Bergen to workout when his abdominal should have been resting. Bergen, loathing Keenan, refused to report to Flyers training camp in September of 1985. Later that month, the 21 year old Bergen announced his retirement to pursue a golf career and Philadelphia immediately suspended him for not reporting.

In November, Philadelphia traded his rights to Minnesota. It was discovered by Minnesota that the abdominal muscle injury was serious and Bergen sat out the rest of 1985-86. Bergen returned to the ice in 1986-87, playing in the AHL with Springfield. After one season in the AHL, Bergen retired again at age 23.

 

[crobro]

Bill Nyrop

 

[Tom Polakis]

Right, what was the deal there? Why did Hull suddenly retire six games in?

With the rule changes post-lockout, it was immediately apparent that the game was moving much faster in the new season. I remember in Game 1, telling my wife, "these guys are flying now." Hull came right out and said that, at 40+ years old, the game was passing him by.

While this is a believable reason, it may have really been that he didn't want to play with a group of sad sacks under rookie coach Gretzky after those seasons with a great Wings team.

The organization un-retired his father's Jets number 9 so Brett could wear it, only to re-retire it thereafter. Man, only the Coyotes...

 

[The Panther]

With the rule changes post-lockout, it was immediately apparent that the game was moving much faster in the new season. I remember in Game 1, telling my wife, "these guys are flying now." Hull came right out and said that, at 40+ years old, the game was passing him by.

While this is a believable reason, it may have really been that he didn't want to play with a group of sad sacks under rookie coach Gretzky after those seasons with a great Wings team.

The organization un-retired his father's Jets number 9 so Brett could wear it, only to re-retire it thereafter. Man, only the Coyotes...

I did think that was odd. It's not like the Red Wings un-retired #9 so Mark Howe could wear it.

I wonder if Gretzky sort-of enticed Hull there, as in, "It'll be great! We'll have fun and you'll get a lot of ice time!" Then after Wayne saw how slow Hull was getting, it was more like: "Nah, you'll be on the fourth line."

 

[Theokritos]

Alexander Almetov decided to quit hockey one week into the 1967-1968 season. He was 27 and had been a World Championship all-star as recently as March 1967.