Dallas Stars guard Joe Pavelski has announced he will not return next season after playing 1,332 NHL regular season games and 201 playoff games, according to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio.
After the Stars lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals, Joe Pavelski strongly hinted that he planned to retire after last season. Though he clarified at the time that it wasn’t official, this had been expected for some time since the Stars’ season ended.
It has now been officially announced that Pavelski is retiring after a long and successful NHL career that spanned 17 seasons with the Stars and San Jose Sharks. The Stars will have to move forward without Pavelski, but it will be interesting to see how they do moving forward. It will also be interesting to see what Pavelski does after retirement and if he will remain involved with the game or the team in any capacity in the future.
The Sharks will undoubtedly honor Pavelski’s tenure now that he’s retired, and they’re a team he could potentially take on in some sort of advisory role if he chooses to do so one day. It’ll be interesting to monitor his post-retirement plans, but it would be understandable if he doesn’t want to jump right into the job, especially since he’s just finished playing.
A look back at Joe Pavelski’s career
Pavelski joined the Sharks in the 2006-07 season and recorded 14 goals and 14 assists for a total of 28 points in 46 games, according to Hockey Reference. He played a total of 13 seasons with the Sharks and was part of a championship-contender team for many years, but was never able to overcome the hurdle of winning the Stanley Cup.
With the Sharks, Pavelski was a consistent scorer, scoring over 60 points multiple times and even scoring over 70 points in three seasons. In 2013-14, he had 41 goals and 38 assists for 70 points, 70 points the following year and 78 points the year after that, making it his most productive three-year scoring season with the Sharks.
San Jose decided it was time to move on after the 2018-19 season, and Pavelski ended up playing for the Dallas Stars in 2019-20. He didn’t have a very productive first season, finishing with 14 goals, 17 assists and 31 points in 67 games, but his form improved after that, and in 2020-21 he put up the stats fans are used to seeing: 25 goals, 26 assists and 51 points in 56 games.
Pavelski impressively recorded a career-high 81 points in 82 games in 2021-2022 at age 37, then added 77 and 67 points in the final two seasons of his career. The Stars were also Cup contenders for much of that time, and will likely remain so next season, but they’ll have to do it without Pavelski.