Patric Hornqvist announces retirement after 15-season NHL career

Swedish winger Patric Hornqvist has announced his retirement from hockey after a 15-season career in the NHL.

Patric Hornqvist tells @BjurmanPer he is retiring. I'll post the YouTube link below, but in 2011 Hornqvist protected a Hockey Night Cameraman, Zac Laszuk, who was accidentally knocked over by a Nashville player coming out of the Predators' mouth (1/2)… https://t.co/nsR5fdrBeA

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 5, 2023

Hornqvist, 36, only played 22 games of the 2022-23 season due to suffering multiple concussions, and had a goal, two assists, and three points on the season. The injuries were a big reason for his retirement, not wanting to risk any more concussions.

“Hockey has been a huge part of life ever since I was a kid, so of course it’s a difficult decision to make, but I have my injury history and don’t want to risk anything in the future,” Hornqvist told Sportbladet (roughly translated from Swedish to English with Google translate). “Therefore, I have finished playing.”

Hornqvist retires after 15 seasons in the NHL, playing 901 regular season games with 264 goals, 279 assists, and 543 points, along with 106 playoff games where he had 28 goals, 25 assists, and 53 points.

He was drafted in the seventh round in 2005 with the final pick of the draft by the Nashville Predators, and went on to play six seasons with the Preds before he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014. After six seasons with the Penguins, winning two Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 and scoring the Cup-winning goal for the latter win, he was traded to the Florida Panthers in 2020, where he’s spent his final three seasons.

Hornqvist also won a gold medal at the 2018 World Championships with the Swedish national team, where he had two goals in five games.

“When I look back, it’s fantastic to think that I have, for example, two Stanley Cup rings on my account, and a World Cup gold, and that I was actually involved and contributed to those victories,” said Hornqvist. “I could never have dreamed of that.”

Hornqvist hasn’t laid out any specific plans for what’s next in his career, but Panthers general manager Bill Zito has expressed the desire to see Hornqvist join the team in a management role in the future.

“Those are of course warm words and I really want to continue working with hockey. Partly to give back to the sport and partly to continue being in this circus. There is nothing better,” said Hornqvist. “We will see what kind of role it will be, but to begin with I will be stationed in Stockholm, we have moved back home to Sweden now. Then we wait and see how it feels in a few years.”