Montreal Canadiens defenseman Chris Wideman to retire from hockey

A former NHLer has decided to call it a career.

On Tuesday, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Chris Wideman has announced he is retiring from professional hockey.

Wideman has not played at all this season, as lumbar disc problems that plagued him last season were enough to rule him out of the lineup back in September.

In an interview with Simon-Olivier Lorange of La Presse, Wideman said the injury was affecting his personal life.

“My son weighed around 25 lbs,” Wideman said. “I struggled to hold him in my arms for more than a minute without discomfort.”

Wideman came to the realization that, despite his desire to continue playing the game he loves, he has to step away in order to help better himself.

The St. Louis native played through the pain during the 2022-23 season, playing just 46 games and registering six assists with the Canadiens. Wideman came to Montreal as a free agent in July 2021, and ended up playing 110 games in Montreal, scoring four goals and 33 points over that span.

He made his NHL debut on Oct. 17, 2015 with the Ottawa Senators, the team that selected him in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Draft. Wideman spent the first three seasons with the Senators, and was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in November 2018. One month later, he was moved to the Florida Panthers.

Following the 2019 season, Wideman played the entire 2019-20 season with the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League. The former Miami University product would go on to be selected to play for Team USA at the 2021 IIHF World Championship. That year, he was named the best defenseman in the Kontinental Hockey League when he registered 41 points in 59 games with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.

Wideman played in 291 NHL games, scoring 20 goals and 58 assists, playing 15 playoff games with the Senators in their run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017.