It Appears That Every NHL Player Decided To Retire Today
A few pairs of skates which have been patrolling the blue lines for a combined 50+ seasons, 3600+ career games, have won a combined 2 Norris Trophies and the current NHL all-time ironman record holder are hanging them up for the last time today. The morning first got going with The Sonkfather himself, Keith Yandle, hopping on Spittin Chiclets to announce his retirement after 15 years in the league with the Coyotes, Rangers, Panthers and Flyers.
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Shortly after that retirement, Zdeno Chara announced he would be signing a 1-day contract with Boston to retire after 24 years in the league with the Islanders, Senators, Bruins, and Capitals. 25 seasons of professional hockey if you're including the 04-05 lockout year in Sweden.
And then right after that, PK Subban announced that he'd be calling it a career after spending 12 full seasons in the league with the Habs, Predators, and Devils.
First of all, I love how Subban always manages to find himself being a part of these rapid fire news days. He was a part of the infamous half hour on June 29, 2016 when we saw Taylor Hall traded for Adam Larsson, Steve Stamkos re-sign with Tampa, and then Subban for Weber. Now he's part of another half hour of wild moves with himself, Chara and Yands all retiring within the same hour.
I think when you look at all 3 of these guys, the right decision was made today. Zdeno Chara is 45-years-old. Dude is a physical freak and I'm sure he could keep playing forever. But he has nothing left to prove and took his certified Hall of Fame career as far as it could possibly go.
Keith Yandle put his body through war while on the path to set the NHL's all-time Ironman streak record, playing in 989 consecutive games. But you could tell that playing for that long without taking any nights up finally caught up to him and he just didn't have the ability to consistently stay in a lineup after that. The man has earned himself a permanent vacation.
And then PK Subban might be the most "shocking" out of these 3 retirements since he's just 33-years-old, but it's been getting pretty obvious that the PK Subban we've watched since getting to New Jersey is a shell of the PK Subban we've come to know throughout most of his career. Also, he jumped into that media role during the playoffs at ESPN and I'd be shocked if he doesn't already have a permanent broadcast spot locked up there moving forward. The quicker it took for PK to come to this decision, the more value he'd have in the media without being that guy who just held on to the game for too long and completely played his reputation to the ground.
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3 great careers that all came to an end at a perfect time. Especially when you look at the way the league is trending. It's a young man's NHL. The combined age of the past 2 Norris Trophy winners is the same age that Chara is now. You have 23-year-old Cale Makar winning the Norris AND the Conn Smythe Trophies in the same season. If you're over 30 on the blueline right now, you're on borrowed time. Josi doesn't count because anybody who is that handsome has to feel at least 7 years younger than their actual age. But there's a new generation of defensemen taking over the NHL right now and unfortunately today is just nature taking its course.