Kyle Brodziak, who has 917 NHL games under his belt, has officially called it a career. Brodziak says a degenerative back injury means he can no longer play in the NHL, and he's retiring with one year left on his contract with the Edmonton Oilers. This year marks the first time since 2003 that the former seventh round draft pick will not attend an NHL training camp.
While never a star, Brodziak carved out his niche as a utility player, starting his NHL career with Edmonton, before moving on to Minnesota for six seasons, St. Louis for three, and then back to where it all began with the Oilers. He finishes his career with 129 goals and 296 points over 14 NHL seasons.
"Every player wants to go out on their own terms but at the same time I've been pretty fortunate to be pretty healthy and not go through surgeries. I'm grateful for that,” Brodziak told the Edmonton Sun.
He says it would have been great to have made it to 1000 NHL games, but it was not to be.
“There was a game early in my NHL career where one of my teammates was honoured for that and 1,000 games became a serious goal of mine. I didn't get it. It would have been a cool milestone, but I'm thankful for the career I had."
Brodziak will still get paid $1.15 million this year, which likely eases the pain some. While he will never play again, the Oilers have moved his salary to long-term injury reserve for cap reasons.
Source: Edmonton Sun
