Unable to recover from post-concussion symptoms that forced to him to miss all of the 2010-11 season and has left him with brain damage, star winger Paul Kariya announced his retirement from hockey on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old known for his creative explosiveness, energy and great speed ends a stellar 15-year NHL career where he was undoubtedly one of the most skilled players of his generation.
Kariya, drafted by Anaheim with the fourth pick in the 1993 Entry Draft, had a long history of concussion troubles, including one that resulted from a crosscheck in the face made by Chicago’s Gary Suter that ended his dream of participating in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano Japan.
He was also devastated by hits from Scott Stevens and Patrick Kaleta. The multiple concussions hindered Kariya over the latter half of his career to the point where he was clearly not the same player as he was in his prime.
Kariya emerged as an NHL star with the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Teaming up with Teemu Selanne, the duo formed one of the most lethal tandems in the NHL. It is worth noting that Kariya's best years came with Selanne on his wing, but his scoring fell off without him. Whereas Selanne enjoyed several great seasons without Kariya.
Yet it was Kariya who was the face of the franchise and in some ways the face of Canadian hockey.
Always approachable and affable, Kariya was easy for both the fans and the media to like. Especially the Canadian media. In the 1990s, the Canadian media was looking for the super skilled Canadian nice guy to wave the Canadian flag. The media did this in the past with Bobby Orr and with Wayne Gretzky, who was on the down side of his career. They never warmed to the big brute and bully Eric Lindros, who was Canada's top player. Both Lindros and Kariya embraced Team Canada in the years before NHL players represented national teams at the Olympics, but it was the nice guy Kariya that they wrapped the Canadian flag around and championed.
The two-time recipient of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship, ends his career (which also saw stops in Colorado, Nashville and St. Louis) with 402 goals and 587 assists in 989 games. He also finished as the runner up to Dominik Hasek in Hart Trophy balloting in 1997, and finished top 5 in NHL scoring 3 times.
The question becomes is that enough to get him into the Hockey Hall of Fame?
Kariya was a special player, certainly a top 10 player in his prime. His peak years were from 1995 through 2000 when he was mentioned in the same breath as Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr and Selanne as the best player in the game. He was the best skater and arguably the most intelligent hockey superstar of his time.
Will Paul Kariya get into the Hockey Hall of Fame? I think he ultimately will. But Lindros and Pavel Bure have been made to wait by the selection committee. The easy to like Kariya probably should get in line behind them.
6 comments:
No way!
Yes Way.
He averaged a point a game throughout his career, and he wasn't even at his best. After concussions, and missing almost 2 complete seasons he still managed to average a point per game. Not to mention he was a 7 time all star.. how many pros accomplished that. not as many as u think. He was also a 3 or 4 time puck control relay champion winning them consecutively. He IS a hall of famer its all a matter of when. He also won a gold and silver in the Olympics for Canada. Most don't like him because of of how he left the ducks. all pros have the right to choose where to go. the owners. GMs have the right to trade, and release players.
Just my opinion.
If they can put a bum like Sundin in the Hall then it is wide open to anyone who plays even one game.Hell,No Skill Todd Gill deserved to be there ahead of that lazy,self centered, good fo nothing Swede.
My favourite player of all time! Also a Vancouverite, which is really cool.
I think he should be a hall of famer, not first ballot, but eventually.
Kariya was arguably one of the top ten players never to win the Cup. He did fortunately win other championships, played a huge role in the Olympic gold medal game in 2002.
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