Former NHL goaltender Anton Khudobin announces retirement

One of the most tenured and peculiar goaltenders to ever take to the ice called it a day.
On Tuesday, it was announced that longtime NHL goaltender Anton Khudobin announced his retirement from pro hockey at the age of 39.
Anton Khudobin has announced his retirement from professional hockey.
Selected by the @mnwild in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, Anton spent time in the ECHL and AHL between 2007 and 2010 before making his @NHL debut for the Wild on February 4, 2010, picking up a victory in his first… pic.twitter.com/31cEuC3DUQ
Khudobin first broke into the NHL in 2010 with the Minnesota Wild, the team that took him in the seventh round of the 2004 NHL Draft. After a couple of seasons mostly spent in the minors, the native of Kazakhstan gained some notoriety backing up Tuukka Rask with the Boston Bruins during the lockout-shortened 2013 season.
That led to Khudobin signing with the Carolina Hurricanes in the summer of 2013, giving him a shot at being a No. 1 goaltender in the NHL for the first time. The experiment didn’t pan out, which resulted in Khudobin being traded to the Anaheim Ducks in June 2015. He would return to Boston as a free agent in July 2016, being reunited with Rask, serving as a capable backup for two more years.
Khudobin would join the Dallas Stars in the summer of 2018, working behind Ben Bishop. However, the veteran got a break in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he carried the Stars to an improbable run to the final, ultimately losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That was the peak for Khudobin. He spent parts of the next two seasons with Dallas before playing for the majority of 2022-23 with its American Hockey League affiliate, the Texas Stars. His last NHL game came on March 23, 2023, with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team to which Khudobin was traded before the trade deadline.
In 260 career regular-season appearances, Khudobin had a record of 114-92-33, with a goals-against average of 2.52, a .916 save percentage and 11 shutouts. In 27 postseason games, he went 14-10 with a 2.63 GAA and a .919 SV% and one shutout.
Khudobin rounded out his pro career in 2023-24, splitting time with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Sibir Novosibirsk and Sokol Krasnoyarsk of the VHL.
Along with his time in the pros, Khudobin also experienced success on the international stage. He won gold with Russia at the 2004 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship and the 2014 IIHF Men’s World Championship. He also won silver at the 2005 and 2006 IIHF World Junior Championships and the 2015 Men’s Worlds.