Vincent Lecavalier retires after 17 years in NHL

Los Angeles Kings forward Vincent Lecavalier has officially decided to hang up his skates from the NHL after 17 years.

The 36-year-old Lecavalier officially confirmed the decision in a statement through the organization on Tuesday, in which he thanked both the Kings and the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that originally drafted him first-overall in 1998.

The Philadelphia Flyers, for whom Lecavalier played for three seasons, were notably omitted from his statement.

Lecavalier was dealt to Los Angeles by the Flyers back in January, in a trade that also sent defenseman Luke Schenn to the Kings.

The trade itself was largely seen as an effort on the Flyers’ part to dump Lecavalier’s hefty contract and open up salary cap space on their roster. Lecavalier had seen increasingly little ice time and production towards the end of his tenure with the Flyers.

Prior to the trade, Lecavalier had stated his intention to retire at the end of the 2015-2016 season, something many saw helped solidify the deal to the Kings.

However, that intention came into question when Lecavalier not only found himself playing heavy minutes in ice time as the Kings’ third line center, but experienced an impressive scoring resurgence with the team, notching 10 goals and 17 points in 42 games.

“I always had that confidence deep down that I could still do well,” Lecavalier told the organization in a prior statement. “It was great. This is a great team, and I know they’re going to win again, just by the way they act and the leadership group and the talent they have. It’s been great.”

In the same statement, however, Lecavalier reiterated his decision to retire following the Kings’ exit in the first-round of the playoffs against the San Jose Sharks.

Throughout an illustrious career, Lecavalier scored 421 goals with 528 assists in 1,212 regular season games, while scoring 26 goals with 30 assists in 75 post-season games.

Lecavalier was also a part of the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Lightning team and won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer in 2007.

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Lecavalier has not elaborated on what his plans will be post-retirement.