FRISCO, Texas – Joe Pavelski says he has no plans to play in the NHL again after playing 1,533 games in 18 seasons and never being able to lift the Stanley Cup.
“That was all for me, it was probably known for a while,” Pavelski said on Tuesday, two days later the Dallas Stars lost in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row.
Pavelski, who just wrapped up his fifth season with the Stars and will turn 40 next month, said he is still decompressing and going through the emotions that come with the end of a season.
“I don’t want to say this is official, but, you know, the plan is not to come back. There will be more news about this,” said Pavelski. “Everything is still raw, as if nothing is official. There will be more words and I’ll need a little time to really put it all together and figure it out that way.”
The Wisconsin native, whose 74 playoff goals are the most by an American-born player and the most among active players, was at the end of his contract with the Stars. He went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 in his first season with Dallas, and also made it this far with San Jose in 2016.
“Consummate professional. Yes, the highlight of my coaching career was working with him,” said coach Pete DeBoer, who had Pavelski as captain in San Jose for four years before being hired by the Stars two years ago. “I’m really glad I had the opportunity to come back and do this again after San Jose.”
Selected 205th overall in the seventh round by the Sharks in the 2003 draft, Pavelski made his NHL debut during the 2006–07 season and scored 476 goals with 592 assists in 1,332 regular season games. This season ended with him fifth among active players in goals and seventh with 1,068 points.
Pavelski last week became the 25th player to play in 200 postseason games; finished with 201. He is the only one in this group without a World Cup title. He has scored one goal in 19 games this postseason.
The Stars were the top seed in the Western Conference in these playoffs. After spending the first two rounds against Vegas and Colorado, the last two Stanley Cup champions, the season ended with a 2-1 loss on Sunday night in Edmonton.
“We couldn’t ask for a better opportunity, a better group of guys to have around,” Pavelski said. “There were a lot of different emotions along the way.”
Wyatt Johnston, the 21-year-old forward who was the Stars’ top scorer this season, lived with Pavelski and his family while playing his first two seasons in the NHL.
“I learned so much from him and I can’t thank him and his family enough for what they did for me,” Johnston said. “It wasn’t just me that he had a big impact on. It’s everyone, he’s the whole organization.”
Asked how long he knew this would likely be Pavelski’s last season, Johnston said he didn’t know exactly, “but living close to home, you kind of know. It definitely makes us, you know, want to win a little more, even more, for him.”
Pavelski said he and his family would return to Wisconsin.
After 13 seasons with the Sharks, Pavelski was unable to reach a deal to remain in San Jose and instead signed a three-year, $21 million contract with the Stars in the summer of 2019. Since then, he has signed back-to-back one-year stretches, earning $5.5 million this season with a base salary of $3.5 million plus incentives based on games played.
He has played in all 302 regular-season games for Dallas over the past four seasons.
“I don’t think it will really happen until next year when we go back to camp and he’s not there,” goaltender Jake Oettinger said. “I just don’t think there are enough words to say how big it is, and it’s not a gap you’re going to be able to fill.”
After missing two weeks while in concussion protocol during last year’s playoffs, Pavelski returned in Game 1 of the second round and became the oldest player with a four-game goal in the NHL playoffs, while also equaling the Stars’ playoff record. That epic performance, including two third-period goals to force overtime, came in a 5-4 loss to Seattle.
Pavelski had missed the last five games of the first-round series against Minnesota after taking a big hit and hitting his head hard on the ice in Game 1.
