At the end of the Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals series against the Oilers, long-time NHLer, Joe Pavelski, made it pretty clear his plan was to not return.
“I don’t want to say this is official, but, you know, the plan is not to be coming back. There’ll be more to come on that.” He went on to explain the complex emotions he was dealing with after a tough playoff loss. “Everything’s still raw, like nothing official. There will be more words and I’m going to need a little bit of time to really put it together and figure it out that way.”
Today Pavelski made the news we all knew was coming official. After 18 years, the veteran centerman has officially retired.
Pavelski’s Legacy
Joe Pavelski was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in 2003, 205th overall. In 963 games with the Sharks, Pavelski scored 355 goals, and 406 assists, totaling 761 points.
He played for the Dallas Stars for the last five years of his career. During his time in Dallas, Pavelski scored 121 goals and 186 assists, totaling 307 points.
Throughout his 18 seasons, he scored less than 20 goals only five times, and two of those seasons were shortened by COVID.
In the playoffs, he had 143 points in 201 games.
He retires today with 1,332 games played, 476 goals, 592 assists, and 1068 points. On top of all of that, he is +201 for his entire career. 383 of his goals were on the powerplay, and 75 were game-winners.
Sometimes, when a legend like Pavelski retires, we remember them for what they used to do. That won’t be the case with Pavelski. He played all 82 games for the last three years and had 81 points, 77 points, and 67 points respectively.
In a day and age where it is very rare for an athlete to stay in one place for an entire career, it’s remarkable that Pavelski has been able to split 18 years between only two teams and still compete at a very high level. All the way, until the very end.
He is coming off a one-year, $5.5 million contract with Dallas. He finished the season with 27 goals and 40 assists, for a total of 67 points, and there’s no doubt several teams would have loved to have had him contribute for them next season.
In addition to his NHL accolades, the Wisconsin native represented Team USA in the Olympics twice, winning the silver medal in 2010.
In college, he played two seasons for the University of Wisconsin. He scored 101 points in 84 games, helping UOW win the 2006 NCAA Division I Championship.
Pavelski won the 2002 State Championship in high school, and the 2004 Clark Cup in the USHL.
