NHL News: Dallas Stars' Joe Pavelski Reveals Decision On His Future

A month away from his 40th birthday, it didn't seem that Father Time was catching up to Captain America Joe Pavelski. He had yet another tremendous season in his 18th year, notching 27 goals and 67 points. But after the Dallas Stars were eliminated over the weekend, the question became: Was he still willing to give it another go next season?

On Tuesday, he revealed his plans to the media:

“This is it for me,” Pavelski said. “Plan is not to play next season.” It's not officially official for now, but it's all but done.

Pavelski admitted that he’s known for a while that this would be his final NHL season, making his performance in 2023-24 that much more impressive.

Pavelski's Stars teammates got very emotional when considering that he wouldn't be back:

Joe Pavelski may have played his last NHL game, and his Stars teammates got emotional discussing his impact 😢 pic.twitter.com/NqKbTgkvaq
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 3, 2024

From terms like "good friend", "great leader", "amazing person", and "all-time teammate," everyone agreed that he has "meant everything to the group."

After being selected in the 7th round of the 2003 NHL Draft, Pavelski proved that a lot of teams made plenty of mistakes in that draft, as he played 13 years with the San Jose Sharks, then joined the Stars for the last five seasons. Overall, he tallied 476 goals and 1,068 points in 1,332 NHL games. He was a four-time All-Star, and netted 20 or more goals in fourteen seasons.

Pavelski also holds the record for an American-born player with 74 playoff goals, although he never quite got his hands on the Stanley Cup, despite two appearances in the Finals (2016, Sharks; 2020, Stars).

An iconic career will be coming to an end, and the NHL will miss him.