It was speculated that Pavelski was going to retire after this season, as it was expected that the 2024 season would be his last after the Dallas Stars’ exit in the Conference Final.
Initially, he was not planning to play next season, but didn’t address his future right after the Stars were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers. But now, he has indeed confirmed that he is retiring, as he told Sirius XM’s Scott Laughlin, and the NHL has also confirmed his retirement.
Throughout his career, he amassed 1,068 points (476 goals and 592 assists) in 1,332 regular season games split between the Sharks and Stars. He is second in Sharks history in goals (355), third in points (761) and games played (1,104), and fourth in assists (406). He captained them from 2015 to 2019, and helped them to the playoffs in 12 of his 13 seasons with them, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2016, where they fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
He had 307 points with the Stars, including a career-high of 81 in 2022, playing every game with them in the last four seasons. He had 13 playoff goals during the Stars’ 2020 Finals run, where they fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
First Decade with the Sharks
The 2003 NHL Draft will forever be one to remember, though Pavelski’s rise to NHL stardom was unexpected after he was picked in the 7th round, 205th overall. After he spent two years with the NCAA’s Wisconsin Badgers where he produced over a point per game and won a national championship, he signed his entry-level contract and turned pro in the 2006 offseason.
After 16 games in the AHL with what used to be known as the Worcester Sharks where he racked up 26 points, Pavelski went on to make an instant impact in the big leagues, where he totaled 14 goals and 28 points, finding himself in the middle six of one of the best forward cores he was part of. He provided crucial secondary scoring for San Jose throughout his first seven seasons, and even got outside conversation for the Selke Trophy.
He would consistently cross the 70-point plateau in the following seasons with the Sharks, and on his contract year, where the Sharks gave him a five-year, $30 million extension, he put up a career-high 41 goals where he also placed in the top 10 in both Hart and Selke Trophy voting in 2014.
Captaincy in San Jose and Later Years with Stars
Pavelski played every game in six of the seven seasons from 2012 to 2018, only missing one game in the 2017 season. He totaled 11 game-winning goals in the 2016 season before a playoff run that saw him score a league-high 14 goals in 24 games, four of which were game-winners, captaining the Sharks to their first Stanley Cup Final in franchise history.
He would hold the captaincy with the Sharks until a cap crunch saw him departing for Dallas. While he was not as dominant as in his previous years with the Sharks as with his later years with them, he did record 89 goals and 109 assists for 198 points in 238 games in his final three seasons with them before he signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Stars.
Things did not start nicely with them. He had his worst production of his career in his first season with them, with 31 points (14 goals and 17 assists) in 67 games, but after the season resumed in the bubble playoffs, he got back into form and scored 13 goals, a league-leading 10 of them at even strength, in 27 games, helping Dallas to the Stanley Cup Final.
The playoff run was no fluke for Pavelski, as it was a sign of things to come. A revamped top line where he had Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz as his linemates set up the team for success down the line. While they missed the playoffs in Robertson’s rookie year, Pavelski did put up 25 goals and 51 points in the shortened 56-game 2021 season. He went on to have a career-high 81 points the following season and played a pivotal role in the development of Robertson and Hintz. While the Stars lost in back-to-back years in the Conference Finals in the next two seasons, Pavelski continued to average north of 0.8 points per game in his final two seasons.
We at Shady Sports Network congratulate Pavelski for an excellent career in the NHL and wish him the best in retirement.
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