As the 2006-07 NHL regular season winds down and the playoffs approaching, there are several veteran NHL players who may be playing their final season in the big league. Here’s a look at the more notable who may be filing retirement papers after this season.
Peter Forsberg. Concerns about his surgically reconstructed right foot and the effect its having on his game drove rumors all season that Forsberg might consider retirement. A lot depends on how well he performs with the Nashville Predators this season. If he fails to be an impact player as he’s always been, that might force him into considering retirement.
John LeClair. Released by the Pittsburgh Penguins mid-way through this season, there’s talk his former club, the Philadelphia Flyers, might bring him back to play out the final games of this season. That would allow him to retire as a member of the team where he had his greatest success, as the league's dominant power forward in the late 1990's.
Jeremy Roenick. “JR Superstar” has been anything but since the lockout, as age has finally caught up with the loquacious Roenick. He’d hoped to be dealt from the Phoenix Coyotes at the trade deadline but nobody was interested. He’s now hinting at retirement and if nobody offers to sign him as a UFA this summer, he’ll be done.
Pierre Turgeon. His offensive production has been in serious decline since 2001, due in large part to injuries that hampered his performance. He was limited to 17 games this season, won’t be re-signed by the Colorado Avalanche and probably won’t attract interest in the UFA market. With over 500 goals and over 1300 points, Turgeon was once a terrific offensive talent, but it’s now obvious his best days are done.
Tony Amonte. His scoring touch has faded over the past three seasons. He might still find employment perhaps as a checking forward but his main selling point throughout his career was his ability to score. Checking forwards are easily affordable, and Amonte without his scoring punch may not be an attractive option for NHL teams this summer.
Bryan Berard. He made a heroic return from a horrific eye injury, but back problems may finally bring his career to a halt. He missed part of last season and most of this season due to back surgery. The Columbus Blue Jackets tried shopping him at the deadline, even placed him on waivers, but no team wanted him. Having taken himself out of the lineup for health reasons for the rest of the season, he may have played his final NHL game.
Sean Burke. After spending most of this season in the minors, Burke found some new life after getting dealt to the LA Kings, where he’s posted up respectable numbers. However, he had respectable numbers last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning but that didn’t prevent him landing in the minors for financial reasons. He might be able to find a new club this summer as a UFA, as the goalie market this summer isn’t particularly deep, but it’s also possible that he could be out of a job.
Trevor Linden. The one-time heart of the Vancouver Canucks has been a spent force over the past two seasons, notching only 16 points last season and 18 in 66 games thus far this season. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer and is likely playing his final games as an NHL player.
Teppo Numminen. He’s posted respectable numbers with the Buffalo Sabres this season, and his years of experience has made him a valuable component on the Sabres blueline. He may still find a market for his services as an unrestricted free agent, but if the Sabres should win the Stanley Cup this spring, one has to wonder if he might consider retirement.
Glen Wesley. It was believed Wesley would retire after winning the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes last year, but he re-signed a one-year contract with the club for this season. With the depth in blueliners now on the ‘Canes roster, however, he may not get another contract with them this season, and his declining totals could make it difficult for Wesley to land with another club.
great article. It's easy to forget about those guys sometimes.
About Linden, unless he himself decides to retire, I think his situation will be the same as this year: The Canucks will wait until just before training camp and offer him whatever is left to their approved salary limit. (this year he got 800k which would have left the team with over a mil of cap leeway but then Clarke did his thing with Kesler which #### Nonis)
He might not be a great player anymore but he is still a serviceable 4th liner, especially for a team like Vancouver with absolutely no depth at forwards... and his leadership and presence are worth something too.
What about him? He's still playing well for the Wings, and says he hopes to continue playing for as long as he can. If the Wings will keep him around for another season (and I suspect they will), he won't be retiring after this season.
What about Bryan Murray? You think he's gonna be back behind the bench spec? Muck ain't offered him a contract yet. I think a guy like Murray can write his own cheque to any team in the market for a coaching change. It's just tough to find guys that are way above .500 with 600 wins and 12 games in the NHL. It's a pretty rare club.
Dit: I think Murray's continued employment with the Sens depends on how far the team goes in the playoffs this spring. If they don't at least make it to the Eastern Conference finals, I think he's done coaching the Senators.
Greetings Mr. Spector. I thought it might be likely that Linden returns for one more year, as his play has been better than last year. Have you heard anything in particular about him? Thanks.
even though I like the Sens, I wish they will be embarassingly swept in 4 games of the first round of the playoffs. Anything to have Melnyk clear the offices of incompetent Muckler and overrated Murray.
This team will never win with those two old guys running the show
Spector is not alone in his opinion. TSN has also reported that Forsberg is considering a return to Sweden for the same reasons that Spector wrote about.
Out of the group, I hope Forsberg & Amonte come back for atleast another year.
Forsberg is a good player...but over the last 5 years he was a suck... can't play with the big boy's nomore. well...never could.. i think it's time for him to retire... wasn't much help with philly and he won't stay healthy long enough to help the preds!
I'd like to see Forsberg come back for at least one full season with Kariya and the boys in Nashville, see what he can do with them for a full season, if his health stays healthy. I can't see it, but, one never knows.
Although not all Marquee names, I add the following - Luke Richardson, Ed Belfour, Jason Allison, Peter Bondra, Brian Leetch, Eric Lindros, Scott Mellanby, Tim Taylor, Alexei Zhamnov
Spec, I think Glen Wesley has a better than 50-50 chance to be back next year. He has been healthy this year for the most part (missed a couple games). If I was a betting man I would say that Brett Hedican retires and Glen Wesley gets offered an 1 year 1 million dollar contract. Of course, I could be wrong.
It will be tough to see JR go as he has definitely been my all-time favorite player since I was a kid. He's been controversial at times, but he's a guy that has a lot of good character and played a solid role on each of the teams he was with (who else would do a dance like he did in L.A.). He was an animal in his rookie years in Chicago as well and if Belfour went that would be tough as both were awesome together to me on that Chicago team as I was growing up playing youth hockey. Also, Glen Wesley was a great Whaler in their days in Hartford, so that'd be another great guy retiring. Could be a lot of good guys retiring after this season, which I didn't notice. Great article Spec!!!!
Bondra was not signed until midseaon. Given he got his 500th goal, will turn 40 in Feb 08 and has not been particularly productive for Chicago, is he likely to get another NHL contract?
I'd hate to see forsberg retire already. as much as I hated seeing him play against the devils (mostly in an avalanche jersey - game 7 in 2001 was a heartbreaker for me), the guy was a great player and he's one of the guys that gives hockey its character.
roenick, amonte, leclair, linden, those are other character type faces, but I think they're a little past the "good by" date.
berard's kind of disappointing. I was sure the eye injury would have ended things for him, but he came back anyway and for a while it seemed nothing would keep him away. the back problems could very well do it though, since he's going on almost 2 seasons of sitting out and nobody would even claim him off waivers.
Mark Recchi Still has alot in the tank He is the thrid leading scoorer for the pens and hes the one that goes into the corners to dig out the puck for Crosby. Three more years at least!
I would add the following names:
Darius Kasperitis
Chris Simon
Petr Nedved
Sergei Gonchar
Ed Belfour
Gary Roberts
and my surprise nominee
Jaromir Jagr - he's got shoulder and leg problems, taking a lot of heat in NYC and doesn't look happy playing anymore.
I would add the following names:
Darius Kasperitis
Chris Simon
Petr Nedved
Sergei Gonchar
Ed Belfour
Gary Roberts
and my surprise nominee
Jaromir Jagr - he's got shoulder and leg problems, taking a lot of heat in NYC and doesn't look happy playing anymore.
What Peter retire, I dont think so. He still has a lot of hockey life in him, and he is supposed to surprise Denver by coming home to play with the Avs one last time.
It's not bad drafting. I do think Carbonneau has rubbed some players the wrong way but I don't believe Gainey will fire him. He'll give him another season at least.
The Habs problem is they're still rebuilding. Huet's hot goaltending was able to hide that but now it's apparent to all that this team still has room for improvement.
Not sure why anyone would include Recchi on this list, he still a very good skater and has nice hands. Chips I like your picks except for Gonchar and Belfour. As an Oiler fan I've seen what Gonchar has and it is alot better than what we have. As for Belfour he is doing pretty good on a bad team. Funny thing about all this is there are guys who should retire, but some team out there hopes that they can make a difference on their team. Look at all the attention Roberts had at the deadline he is obviously still valuable to someone. In my mind Hatcher is the guy who needs to pull the pin and save his team at least a roster spot.
Why would Gonchar retire when he's still under contract for $4.5 million/year for the next few years AND he's the second leading scorer in the entire league for defencemen?
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
