He was injured for much of the 2012 playoffs but was still able to lift the Cup with the Kings.
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“Today, I want to thank my trainers and teammates”, said Gagne in a press release. “The best thing for me was going back to my junior team”.
As fond as he is of the Flyers, there was a two-year period of acrimony between him and the club stemming from Gagne trusting then-GM Paul Holmgren to re-sign him after the lockout-shortened season.
Some of it had to do with salary cap considerations but the snub left a bitter taste.
Gagne did not play in the 2013-14 season, but returned a year later after making the Boston Bruins through a tryout contract.
Gagne says there are no hard feelings toward the Flyers.
Now, he’s deciding that means it’s time to call it quits. “It was just a tough day to swallow at that time”.
“Last year, I lost my father: my number 1 fan, my coach, my confidant, my best friend, and my top teammate”, Gagne wrote.
Those are great memories Gagne cherishes, but now he’s looking forward to spending a lot of time with his wife and three children, the youngest a four-month-old baby. When he was coming in town he was asking about my dad.
Gagne scored 264 goals and tallied 271 assists while wearing the orange and black.
Gagne, 35, was named Flyers team MVP in 2005-06 and again in 2006-07.
Simon Gagne called it quits Tuesday after 15 National Hockey League seasons, 10 of which were spent with the Philadelphia Flyers. According to NHL.com, former Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Simon Gagne has officially decided to hang up his skates for the final time and enjoy the benefits of retirement. “It was pretty neat when a player – like Kimmo (Timonen, who just won the Cup with Chicago) that’s the ideal ending, the flawless scenario, right?”
“Sometimes the more distance you get from a player, the more you forget how good he was”, Hextall said.
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On the other hand, we can’t ignore that he played his last NHL hockey as a Bruin. If not, maybe he shouldn’t have scored that goal and broken all our hearts.
