Saku Koivu announces retirement: 'This is the right decision for me and my family'
Former Montreal Canadiens and Anaheim Ducks center Saku Koivu officially announced his retirement from professional hockey Wednesday after 18 seasons in the National Hockey League.
The 39-year-old shared his thoughts on the Ducks' website, offering insight as to why the decision was made at this point in time:
I felt that I was coming toward the end of my career, and then I had the concussion thing last November and December, where I missed quite a bit of time. That was kind of the first time where I really had to sit down and think about the whole picture. It was my first concussion. I played for 18 or 19 years, almost 20 years in the pro leagues and nothing like this had happened before.
After the last game against the Kings, I remember I was the last guy who came off the ice. I hugged Teemu [Selanne] and congratulated him on his career and I said, 'I feel so privileged that I played with you.' He said, 'The same, but your last season is ahead of you.' I told him I really felt like this might be it for both of us. That feeling just grew stronger and stronger over the summer. I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to maybe change my mind and start working out to get ready for another season. But that feeling never came. I haven’t been on skates since the last game against the Kings, and I strongly feel this is the right decision for me and my family at this point of my life.
The Ducks not signing me in July or end of June also made it easier for me to make the decision. There was no way for me at the end to start moving my family and go somewhere for maybe another year ... Even if they did offer me a contract, I don’t think I would have been back. When you hear a team say, we’re not going to sign up and we’re going in a different direction, it’s disappointing to hear and it hurts a bit. But I expected it and kind of knew it was going to happen, so it didn’t take me much time to see the potential of how much more there is in life and what else the future might hold for me.
Koivu appeared in 1,124 NHL games, scoring 255 goals and adding 577 assists. He was named the first European-born captain in Canadiens franchise history in 1999, and won the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2002 for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey after returning to the game following a successful fight against non-Hodgkin lymphoma.