Marian Hossa, a Hall-of-Famer and three-time Stanley Cup champion, gave one final hoorah to the game of hockey as he assembled a star-studded cast for a 'Goodbye Game' in his native Slovakia last Friday.
The lineup was littered with some of the NHL's former best including Niklas Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara, Peter Bondra, Daniel Alfredsson and Henrik Zetterberg along with a litany of his former Stanley Cup teammates like Jonathan Toews, Dustin Byfuglien, Nikolas Hjalmarsson, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith and more.
Also a part of the festivities, which included an honoring ceremony for Hossa, a drone-based lightshow and more, were a couple of current and former Hurricanes.
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Teuvo Teravainen, who was teammates with Hossa from 2013-2016 when he was a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, was the only current Hurricane to play in the game, but other former Canes included Andrej Sekera (2013-2015), Viktor Stalberg (2016-2017), Marcus Kruger (2017-18), Scott Darling (2017-2019) and Petr Mrazek (2018-2021).
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Hossa played in 19 NHL seasons recording 525 goals and 1,134 points in 1,309 games.
He was drafted 12th overall in the 1997 NHL draft by the Ottawa Senators where he would play for seven seasons. He would also spend time with the Atlanta Thrashers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings before landing with the Blackhawks where he would play the remainder of his career (eight seasons).
Hossa is all-time leading goal scorer among Slovakian players and second in points behind only Peter Stastny (1,239).
The proceeds from the Goodbye Game went to Hossa's charity, "HOSS Heroes."
The charity's website states that:
-"Corporations, employees, investors and customers give social responsibility and philanthropy more importance. Marian Hossa and his brother Marcel are not only exceptional Slovak ice hockey players, but also well known persons, who know where to stand in this area. Marian is supporter of similar foundations connecting with his name overseas for a long time. Therefore, it was natural that alongside his businesses in Slovakia, he has interest to assist the communities where he grew up. We would like to introduce to you HOSS Heroes, not-for-profit organization, which goal is to organize charity events, improve conditions and community relations in the area of youth sport and other activities."