The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team’s leader in NHL regular-season scoring is headed toward retirement.
Joe Pavelski told Dallas media members on Tuesday that he isn’t planning to play next season. Pavelski’s Dallas Stars lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the conference final on Sunday.
Pavelski, who’ll turn 40 in July and typically spends his offseasons in the Madison area, said his retirement wasn’t official after his 18th NHL season but he was intending for this to be his last campaign.
Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski says “this is it for me.” Says it’s not official official, but said it was known for a long time that this was his last go. “Plan is not to play next season.”
— Taylor Baird (@taylordbaird) June 4, 2024
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He was a seventh-round draft pick by San Jose in 2003. He won the NCAA championship in his second of two seasons with the Badgers in 2005-06.
A Plover native, Pavelski became the first Wisconsinite to score 1,000 regular-season points in the NHL. He finished with 476 goals and 1,068 points in 1,332 regular-season games.
Pavelski’s 74 playoff goals are the most for a U.S.-born player but he never won a Stanley Cup. He was in the Stanley Cup Final with San Jose in 2016 and with Dallas in 2020, when playing in a COVID-19 bubble left plenty of time for thinking about what holding the prize would be like.
“I’ve been through it once,” Pavelski told the State Journal before the 2020 championship series. “Thoughts are going to pop up. They pop up in the first round. They pop up in the second round. They pop up in the summer training. And the biggest thing is the understanding that that’s all right. That’s why we’re doing this. We’re trying to get to the highest level, test our skills to feel that pressure but really test what we’ve got and go out and try to win four series.”
If his retirement goes through this offseason, Pavelski will be eligible for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2027.
Work ethic frequently was cited for Pavelski’s success in a long career. He overcame concerns about his skating and put in extra effort with hand-eye coordination in redirecting pucks in front of the net.
After two seasons…
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