Paul Stastny Announces Retirement From NHL

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Paul Stastny has decided to retire from the NHL.

While he hasn't officially filed the paperwork for retirement, he told LeBrun that he had made the decision in September to hang them up.

It seemed like this decision was on the horizon for Stastny following the Hurricanes' postseason elimination at the hands of the Florida Panthers.

"One of the things I've got to think about is if I want to play next year or not," Stastny said back in June during his exit interview. "I feel like after a playoff series... I've always been good about taking a few weeks off. Coming out of it, you want to play or you don't want to play and then things change. Your body starts feeling better and you sit down with your family. But it will come down to my family and I deciding what we want to do."

And it looks like his decision was to step away.

Drafted in 2005 by the Colorado Avalanche, Stastny played in 1,145 regular season games across 17 seasons and registered 293 goals and 822 points. He also played in 118 playoff games and had 30 goals and 73 points.

Stastny never won an individual award, but he finished second in Calder Trophy voting in 2007 between winner Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal.

Stastny played on five teams — Colorado Avalanche (538 games), St. Louis Blues (267), Winnipeg Jets (146), Vegas Golden Knights (121) and Carolina Hurricanes (73) — and finished 13th all-time in faceoff wins.

The 37-year-old son of Hall-of-Famer Peter Stastny, never had a season below 50% in the faceoff dot and had 11 seasons over 55%.

While Stastny was only briefly a Hurricane, he forever entrenched himself in Carolina history thanks to his Game 6, overtime, series-winner against the New York Islanders.