Patrick Maroon will retire from the NHL after the season, the Chicago Blackhawks forward said on Saturday.
The 36-year-old is in his 14th NHL season and first with the Blackhawks after signing with them as an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
“It’s tough. Sometimes you’ve got to give up everything you know and everything you’ve dreamed of your whole life,” Maroon told Blackhawks analyst Darren Pang prior to Chicago’s game against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. “I just know it’s time for me and it’s time for my family to go start a new chapter in our lives.”
St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery coached Maroon last season in Boston.
“I had the good fortune of coaching Pat Maroon in Boston last year and in the playoffs,” Montgomery said. “He is an exemplary and great teammate and he’s an incredibly intelligent hockey mind and player. He’s very underrated about how well he understands the game. He’s one of the best players at making plays off walls and breakouts at leading to 2-on-1s, and everybody knows how he sacrifices for the team. And on the bench, he made a huge impact for us in Boston because he brings energy, he lifts people up, he coaches people that he’s playing with. Sorry to see him retire, but what a career. A champion.”
Maroon has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 59 games this season. The Blackhawks (20-41-9), who have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention, have 12 regular-season games remaining after Saturday.
Selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the sixth round (No. 161) of the 2007 NHL Draft, Maroon has 320 points (125 goals, 195 assists) in 839 regular-season games for the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Blues, Lightning, Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins and Blackhawks and 53 points (20 goals, 30 assists) in 163 playoff games. Prior to this season, his teams had qualified for the playoffs in eight straight seasons.
“It’s hard to go through things like this, you can’t really process it, but I think it’s best for me and my family to go start a new chapter,” Maroon said.
A St. Louis native, Maroon won the Stanley Cup three straight seasons from 2019-2021, first with the Blues and then the following two seasons with the Lightning.
“To get to have a special moment tonight and be in St. Louis, to have my family come to town … I won a Stanley Cup here and I’m just going to finish this year as every game is going to be my last game,” Maroon said. “I’m going to play as hard as I can and do everything I can to keep winning hockey (games). It’s all I know … it’s tough.”
Blues captain Brayden Schenn played with Maroon during the Stanley Cup championship season in 2018-19.
“He’s an incredible human, an incredible guy,” Schenn said. “A guy that really came in here and really helped embrace the locker room and become a huge piece on and off the ice of what this team is all about. Rightfully so, the crowd did him right, a guy that’s just grinded for everything that he’s got in his whole career. He’s a guy that plays hard minutes, he’s fought tough guys throughout his whole career playing at 36, 37 doing it the way he does. It’s definitely hat’s off to him.”
