NHL Players' Late Career Comebacks

Players Aged 35 and Up Return from Long Absences with Mixed Success

Sep 16, 2009

For most hockey players, once they retire, that's it, it's official with no turning back. Others, though, have a harder time letting go.

Neil Sedaka once sang that “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”. That line couldn’t ring any truer for a number of hockey players who have announced their retirement, only to return to the NHL/pro ranks just a few years later.

The results, however, aren’t always exactly as had hoped. Here’s a look at some of the more notable attempted comebacks and how the players in question fared.

Dominik Hasek’s Multiple Retirements and Comebacks

On the ice, he was known as “The Dominator”. Off the ice, however, Dominik Hasek could have easily been dubbed “Mr. Indecisive”. After leading the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup in 2002, the then-38-year-old announced his retirement from hockey.

It was short-lived. In 2003-04, the Czech netminder dusted off his pads and was promptly re-signed by the Wings. He followed up a brief two-game appearance with Pardubice of the Czech league during the lockout with an injury-marred campaign with the Senators in 2005-06 before ultimately returning to Detroit for a pair of seasons. Though he enjoyed a solid regular season, the playoffs would be less than memorable after he was replaced by Chris Osgood in Game 4 of their opening round series in 2007-08.

Hasek called it a career for a second time after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2008.

It would seem he wasn’t ready to let go then, either; in April 2009, it was reported that the 44-year-old was returning to professional hockey, only this time with HC Moeller Pardubice.

Claude Lemieux Makes a Brief Return to the NHL

Those that had to play against Claude Lemieux over the years likely breathed a sigh of relief when he retired in 2003. One of the premier agitators who also had a knack for raising his offensive game in the playoffs, Lemieux said so long to the NHL after the Dallas Stars bought him out just ahead of the 2003-04 season.

He made a brief return to professional hockey when he appeared in seven games with Switzerland’s EV Zug in February 2004. He took off his skates seemingly for the last time after that brief stint.

Nearly five years later, though, Lemieux opted give the NHL another go. On November 24, 2008, the Worcester Sharks – AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks – signed the Buckingham, Quebec native to a tryout contract. A month later, San Jose inked him to a one-year pact and, just three weeks after that, Lemieux made his debut in teal and black at the ripe old age of 43.

He recorded 11 points in 23 AHL games but wasn’t nearly as productive when was called up; he picked a single assist in 18 regular season games and suited up for just one postseason contest.

Health Halts Mario Lemieux’s Comeback

One of hockey's all-time greats, Mario Lemieux hung up his skates twice due to health issues. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1992 and repeatedly plagued by back problems over the years, Lemieux overcame the cancer but opted to call it quits after the 1996-97 season. In recognition of his all-worldly talent, the customary three-year waiting period for induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame was waived and the Montreal native was enshrined in 1997.

Still yearning for the game, Lemieux returned during the 2000-01 campaign. Injuries would once again derail him; the 6-foot-4 center was sidelined for most of the 2001-02 and 2003-04 seasons due to nagging hip issues. In December 2005, he learned he had an irregular heartbeat that required medication to keep it under control. A month later, at the age of 40, the NHL’s seventh all-time leading scorer closed the curtain for good on his hockey career.

Despite the injuries in his second NHL go-round, Lemieux racked up 229 points in 170 games upon his comeback.

The Return of Theoren Fleury

Theoren Fleury’s prolonged absence from the NHL wasn’t of his own volition. Suspended indefinitely for violating the league’s substance abuse policy a second time, Fleury hadn’t been on an NHL rink since the 2002-03 campaign, when he donned a Chicago Blackhawks sweater.

In 2005, he crossed the pond for his first attempted comeback in pro hockey, joining the Belfast Giants of the British Elite League. There, he recorded 74 points (22 goals, 52 assists) in just 34 games.

The diminutive forward hoped to have his hockey career come full circle in 2009, when he was invited to the Calgary Flames’ training camp on a tryout. Drafted eighth overall by the Flames in 1987 and the club’s all-time leading scorer until Jarome Iginla took over in 2008-09, the 41-year-old Fleury was re-instated by the NHL just ahead of the opening of camp in September 2009.

On September 25, 2009, the Flames announced that Fleury had been released from his professional tryout agreement. A few days later, he officially announced his retirement from hockey.

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