Shocking retirement announcements in hockey (a la Andrew Luck)

[mrhockey193195]

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.

He had declined enough by that point that I don't know if it was "shocking". By comparison, Luck was going into this season as a top QB and his team (in no small part because of him) was considered a favorite for the Super Bowl.

 

[wetcoast]

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.

These 2 were the first that came to mind but with Dryden it wasn't that big of a surprise as goalies are odd cats and Dryden obviously wasn't the stereotypical hockey player for the 70's to begin with as he sat out the 73-74 season to prepare for the bar exam.

Lemaire was really surprising in that he led the playoffs in scoring and should have won the Conn Smythe and he was only 32 years old at the time.

 

[McGarnagle]

He had declined enough by that point that I don't know if it was "shocking". By comparison, Luck was going into this season as a top QB and his team (in no small part because of him) was considered a favorite for the Super Bowl.

Not to drag us off-topic, but absolutely no one considered the Colts a Super Bowl favorite, or even a contender.

 

[frisco]

Jagr going to Russia in 2008 was a shock. He'd just come off a productive season (71 points playing all 82 games; 15 points in ten playoff games) and was "only" 36. You think some GM would be with it enough to make him a good offer before he went the KHL route.

My Best-Carey

 

[mrhockey193195]

Not to drag us off-topic, but absolutely no one considered the Colts a Super Bowl favorite, or even a contender.

You're right, that was a bit of hyperbole on my part. But they were projected to be a 9 or 10 win team and make the playoffs, no?

 

[Michael Farkas]

Yes, solely on the back of Luck, with a hint of "bad division" being sprinkled in there too...

 

[McGarnagle]

You're right, that was a bit of hyperbole on my part. But they were projected to be a 9 or 10 win team and make the playoffs, no?

Yeah, they were expected to win the division or at least compete with Houston for the division. But now that Luck is done and Houston traded Clowney for no reason, it's wide open for Jacksonville maybe. But really the AFC is going to be the Patriots, Chiefs, Chargers, and then 13 mediocre-to-bad teams this year.

 

[Big Phil]

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.

This is why Bossy was inducted into the HHOF in 1991 and not 1990. You figure he last plays in 1987 so his three year period ends in 1990 and a guy like him is in right away no questions asked. But the way the rules were at the time was you had to wait three years after retirement was announced before getting in. That has since been changed, a la Pronger in 2015 getting in right away.

 

[NoMessi]

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.

Im pretty sure he is best remembered for being voted as the best D in the Olympic games that year.

 

[Passchendaele]

Jeff O'Neill

He was only 31.

 

[Moose Head]

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.

Completely forgot about the year off thing. Thanks for jogging my memory.

 

[JianYang]

Jagr going to Russia in 2008 was a shock. He'd just come off a productive season (71 points playing all 82 games; 15 points in ten playoff games) and was "only" 36. You think some GM would be with it enough to make him a good offer before he went the KHL route.

My Best-Carey

I thought the story was that jagr got a ridiculous deal in Russia. Didn't he accumulate gambling debts or something?

If so, it would make sense that he went after as much cash as possible.

 

[VMBM]

32 is closer to a normal retirement age in Soviet hockey though. 27 on the other hand is exceptionally young and Almetov's contemporaries were stunned by it. Boris Mayorov for example wrote that Almetov retired "unacceptably early". Also, the timetable is this: Almetov played in Game 1 in mid September, then he disappeared from the game rosters for a month, then in mid October his retirement is announced. You can bet Tarasov spent the month in between furiously trying to convince Almetov to continue because it was such a shock.

Hey, age is "just a number", don't you know that?!!

Well, no it isn't, not in the world of top sports anyway, but I reckon that Tretiak would've had at least as many years left at the top as Almetov, having been a goalie and all... But of course we'll never know.

 

[frisco]

I thought the story was that jagr got a ridiculous deal in Russia. Didn't he accumulate gambling debts or something?

If so, it would make sense that he went after as much cash as possible.

I think it was $5 million but that's probably tax free. You'd think an NHL team wouldn't be scared off by that number.

My Best-Carey

 

[JianYang]

I think it was $5 million but that's probably tax free. You'd think an NHL team wouldn't be scared off by that number.

My Best-Carey

I thought the figure was much much higher, despite being tax free.

Regardless, even 5 Mil tax free would roughly equate to 10 Mil pre tax in a place like Montreal for example . Back in 2008, there was nobody making that type of salary, and it may have even been over the maximum salary a player could receive at the time.

Perhaps Jagr didn't want to play in the NHL either. I recall hearing that his body was pretty beat up by the NHL, and he credited the khl for extending his career.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Tom Edur quitting at the age of 23 to devote his life to the Jehovah's Witnesses. He played 100 games for a terrible Colorado Rockies team and was +24 (then was traded to Pittsburgh!)
Pittsburgh Penguins Legends: Tom Edur

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I do think Patrick Roy could've played a few more seasons and still have good numbers. I think till at least 2010 anyway.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

I do think Patrick Roy could've played a few more seasons and still have good numbers. I think till at least 2010 anyway.

2010? Roy would have been 44 by then. Age would have caught up with Roy and his skills would have inevitably eroded, no matter how great of shape he was in. Had he somehow played until 2010, Roy most likely would have been a backup somewhere and I don't see Roy being content in a backup role.

 

[seventieslord]

Jeff O'Neill

He was only 31.

Nah, if you watched him play in 2005-06 and 2006-07 it wasn't surprising.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Nah, if you watched him play in 2005-06 and 2006-07 it wasn't surprising.

That, and I remember he also said he was retiring at some point in the summer of 2006 and then changed his mind. That, and there was the fact that he was in Toronto in the first place because his brother passed and he wanted to be close to home... really the only thing surprising about the end of his career was that he bothered going to the Hurricanes camp on a PTO a bit after that instead of outright walking away forever.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Nah, if you watched him play in 2005-06 and 2006-07 it wasn't surprising.

Agreed. He was a quintessential DPE scorer and the game passed him by after the lockout.

 

[shello]

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.

If this is one eye frank McGee losing an eye probably influenced him leaving as well

 

[Pominville Knows]

If this is one eye frank McGee losing an eye probably influenced him leaving as well

He retired becouse of that, but rather just when it happened when he was 18. He made a comeback a few years later and only retired at 23 becouse his regular job made it hard for him to travel.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

That was basically it. There were always rumblings that he wanted his kids to be raised in Sweden and be around their extended family, etc. It was something like he wanted his kids to start and finish school in the same place and not have to move them somewhere in between.

Once Holland made him one of the highest paid players in the league, those rumors seemed to stop.

that does seem to be a common rumour with swedish players doesn't it? i feel like you don't tend to hear as much "i want to raise my kids back home" with other europeans as you do with swedes for some reason.

i'm guessing one example of this is ulf dahlen in 1997—packed it up and went back to sweden to play two seasons for linkoping. then he came back to finish out his career with four more NHL seasons, three in washington and a last year in dallas. what happened in in 1997? his son jonathan (2nd round pick in 2016) was born.

i guess after being uprooted from san jose, where he'd spent the previous four years, at the '97 deadline, there was no home in north america to stay in to raise his family? not that he didn't come back, of course (unlike, say, kenny jonsson).

 

[FrozenJagrt]

While not close to being a star, Chad Kilger's retirement was a mysterious one. After the Leafs traded him to Florida, he requested a leave of absence and never returned to the ice, instead going on to work as a firefighter in his hometown.