After 890 regular-season games and 120 postseason games across 13 seasons, Derek Stepan has called it a career.
The 33-year-old forward was drafted in the second-round of the 2008 draft and played for four teams over his career — New York Rangers (515 games), Arizona Coyotes (224), Ottawa Senators (20) and Carolina Hurricanes (131) — and made the playoffs in 10 of his 13 seasons.
He last played for the Hurricanes after signing as a free agent in back-to-back seasons, where he scored 14 goals and 30 points across 131 regular season games and had one assist in 14 postseason games, although that one was pretty clutch.
Over his career, Stepan scored 178 goals and 512 points in the regular season and had 20 goals and 55 points in the playoffs.
He was a steady playoff performer, who was involved in quite a few series-clinching goals.
In a statement through the NHLPA, Stepan said:
-“After 13 years in the NHL I’ve decided to retire. I want to thank my family and friends for always supporting me and allowing me to live my dreams. I want to thank the four organizations I had the privilege of playing for, and to my teammates for allowing me to be part of their family. Finally, I want to thank the fans, it was an honor to play in front of you. I’m forever grateful for this game and I look forward to the next chapter.”
Stepan accepted his diminishing role in Carolina with class. He took a PTO with the team last year despite playing in just 58 games and three playoff games and was rewarded for his perseverance with even more playing time than he had gotten the previous year.
The writing was pretty much on the wall for him at the end of last season and you could feel that this was the decision coming.
"If I were to be honest, I didn't think I was going to play as much as I did game-wise," Stepan said in his exit interview. "I still believe I can play and I'd be silly not to think that way, but I'm smart enough to know how to assess my game. I'm smart enough to understand where I'm at and what's going on. I love it here and would love to play again, but I know the position I'm in and I know it's going to be difficult to find a job."
While a job on the ice maybe didn't materialize, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic, Stepan will be taking a job back in his hometown with the Minnesota Wild organization.
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