Catching Up With The Past

The Denver Post is reporting that Pierre Turgeon is expected to announce his retirement in the near future. Turgeon has a bit of a love-hate relationship with fans, as Jes Golbez suggests. But to his credit Golbez also suggests Turgeon, with his 515 goals and 1327 points has to be a Hall of Fame consideration. At least in any Hall of Fame that includes Bernie Federko or Clark Gillies.

Turgeon's upcoming announcement made me wonder who else will announce their retirement or be forced into retirement this summer. Here's a list of some potential big name candidates:

Eastern Conference:

Jason York (Boston), Teppo Numminen (Buffalo), Radek Bonk, David Aebischer and Janne Niinimaa (Montreal), Michael Peca, Jeff O'Neill, and Travis Green (Toronto), Jim Dowd (New Jersey), Chris Simon, Sean Hill, and Mike Dunham (New York Islanders), Brendan Shanahan, Sandis Ozolinsh (New York Rangers), Robert Esche (Philadelphia), Mark Recchi, Gary Roberts, Eric Cairns and Jocelyn Thibault (Pittsburgh), Keith Tkachuk (Atlanta), Martin Gelinas (Florida), Luke Richardson (Tampa Bay), and Donald Brashear (Washington).

Western Conference:

Jeff Friesen, Darren McCarty (Calgary), Patrice Brisebois (Colorado), Petr Nedved (Edmonton), Wes Walz (Minnesota), Trevor Linden (Vancouver), Teemu Selanne (Anaheim), Eric Lindros, Darryl Sydor, Jon Klemm (Dallas), Sean Burke (Los Angeles), Mike Ricci, Jeremy Roenick, Owen Nolan, Curtis Joseph (Phoenix), Bill Guerin (San Jose), Peter Bondra (Chicago), Bryan Berard, Brian Boucher (Columbus), Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Dominik Hasek (Detroit), Peter Forsberg (Nashville) and Martin Rucinsky, Dallas Drake and Vladimir Orszagh (St. Louis).

One thing is for sure: The NHL's oldest player will return next season. The Detroit Red Wings signed 44 year old Chris Chelios to a 1 year, $850,000 deal.

Elsewhere, NewYorkIslanders.com has been busy naming the top 10 defensemen in Long Island history. There's no surprise that Denis Potvin tops that list, but 2 through 10 make for fun debate.

A couple of former marginal NHL tough guys are in the news. Billy Huard is speaking out the state of the game and the role fighting plays in it. Meanwhile Jim Agnew presses forward in his new career as sheriff's deputy in Missoula, Montana.