Florida Panthers Forward Calls It A Career After 15 Seasons

Florida Panthers forward Patric Hornqvist has decided to hang up the skates. The 15-year veteran officially retires from the NHL, which was first reported in Sweden on Wednesday.

Hornqvist appeared in 22 games in 2022-23, recording one goal and two assists. He missed the majority of the season due to multiple concussions and admits injuries were a huge factor in his decision. 

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. Therefore, I have finished playing. 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. could never have dreamed of that. 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. 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

One of the best power forwards of his era, Hornqvist was great at getting under opponents skin. He played a total of 901 regular season games and 106 Stanley Cup Playoff games, tallying 596 combined points.  

Originally a seventh-round pick of the Nashville Predators Hornqvist was 'Mr Irrelevant' of the 2005 draft class, being selected as the final pick of the class. He spent six seasons with the Preds and moved on to the Pittsburgh Penguins where he'd win two Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.

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